


Twenty-Five Snowflakes

by EntameWitchLulu



Series: Holiday Collections [3]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Mostly Fluff, Multi, One Shot Collection, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, References to Depression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 05:38:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 34,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16804681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EntameWitchLulu/pseuds/EntameWitchLulu
Summary: No two snowflakes are the same.  So too are no two loves quite the same.Twenty-five somewhat holiday-themed stories about various ships, romantic and platonic, leading up to Christmas.  Ships and tags will be added as one shots are posted.  Arc V exclusive.





	1. Masumi / Selena

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Star
> 
> Pairing: Moonstoneshipping [Masumi/Selena]
> 
> Selena and Masumi have been working for the EID, the Extraterrestrial Investigation Department, for a few years together as partners. But this will be their first stint in an observation bunker, with a two month period of service stretched out before them.

Selena startled awake when she felt the warm mug touch against her open hand. She groaned, peeling her eyes open and trying to figure out what her limbs were doing. She felt _stiff_.

“Good morning,” Masumi said dryly. “Sleep well, princess?”

“Shut up,” Selena grumbled.

She felt her fingers still against the mug, and curled them around it automatically as a frame of reference. She blinked a few times more to get the crud out of her eyes. She’d fallen asleep with her head on on arm, sprawled face down on the table from her chair. Her muscles ached and protested when she pushed herself back into her rolling chair, sitting up straight.

The chair clicked beneath Masumi’s weight as she sat down in the one next to Selena. She spun to face the readouts and glowing screens in front of her, but there was nothing to look at. Everything was the same as usual. Nothing ever changed.

Selena gripped the warm mug of coffee in both hands. Christ, but it was cold down here. Did they turn off the heat?

“How long was I asleep?”

“About an hour.”

Masumi sipped at her own coffee while Selena shot her a bleary glare.

“And you just let me sleep?”

Masumi shrugged. She put her mug down on the desk and shrugged off her suit jacket, leaving her just in her rumpled dress shirt. She loosened her tie, next, and it let the fold of her collar fall open a bit. Selena ducked her eyes away, hoping Masumi wouldn’t see the light flush over her cheeks.

“Nothing’s happened,” Masumi said. “And we’ve been down here for four days. I think you’re entitled to a nap.”

“We’re supposed to sleep in our specified shifts.”

“No one’s keeping count, Sel.”

Selena pressed her lips together at the nickname, but she was too tired to argue with it. She just drowned her complaint in a scalding sip of coffee. It was nice and warm on her insides though, and just what she needed to wake up.

She turned her attention to the screens before her. The radar was quiet. Nothing but a the blip of a passing airplane, which left them behind a moment later. God, but she really was tired. How long had they been in this bunker? Masumi had just said four days. It felt like a lifetime. And they were on this detail for a whole two months.

Well, Selena _had_ been pestering mission control to actually _give_ her a mission. This was her and Masumi’s first observation detail for the EID — Extraterrestrial Investigation Department. Selena had wanted something more...hands-on, something with the first-response teams who arrived first on the scene of suspected alien arrivals, but at least it was a change of pace from crashed spaceship clean up duty.

“Hey,” Masumi said. “I think it’s snowing.”

Selena lifted her head. Masumi was looking at one of the camera feeds showing them outside the bunker. She leaned over close to peek at the screen.

“Are you sure? It looks like interference maybe.”

“If it’s snowing, we’re going to have to clean out the dish,” Masumi said. “Ugh.”

She flopped back in her chair, her hair falling back over the back of her seat and catching the light of the screens. Selena tried not to look too closely at the shine of her hair. God, only four days in a bunker with Masumi and she was _already_ losing it.

“Winter duty is the worst,” Masumi said. “I can’t believe you got us on this.”

“It’s an important duty of EID agents to perform observation,” Selena said. “And you really should — put your jacket back on.”

“Nobody’s watching, Sel. I’m not keeping up uniform protocol _just_ for you.”

 _Okay, but you’re distracting me,_ Selena didn’t say out loud, lifting her eyes away from Masumi’s collarbone peeking out through the top of her shirt.

They sat in another long silence for a while.

“Hey, Sel?” Masumi said.

“What?”

“Do you think we’re going to handle this? I’ve heard other partners who go on observation duty start to fall apart after the first week.”

 _I’m already falling apart,_ Selena thought, keeping her eyes away from the line of Masumi’s neck and trying not to think about the heat against her lips when she thinks about kissing that soft skin. She coughed into her hand — that was absolutely not what Masumi was talking about and she knew it.

“You haven’t particularly annoyed me with any of your habits so far,” Selena said. “Besides, if anyone can fall apart that easily with their partner, they were poor partners to begin with. We’re not like that.”

Masumi considered Selena for a moment. She half smirked then, and Selena surreptitiously moved her coffee closer to her lips to try and hide the blush as the heat of the coffee.

“I guess you’re right,” she said. “I’d really hate not liking you anymore.”

Selena tried to briefly drown in her coffee cup to avoid meeting Masumi’s eyes. Masumi stretched, her chair squeaking. She leaned forward, then, and started to flick through a few screens. Selena put her mug down and watched with her as they checked the camera feeds outside — it was, in fact snowing, and pretty hard, too. They might have to get out there and dig out some of their equipment. Masumi switched to the infrared, and then to the radar, and then finally, to the telescope view.

Despite the snow, the night sky shone bright and clear through the screen. The telescope feed was coming from a satellite above the atmosphere, so it had an unimpeded view of the stars.

Although they hadn’t been speaking, Selena almost felt as though they both went silent at the sight. The faint flickering of stars, the swirl of the galaxies, the vast expanse of space — like the snow outside, it seemed to sap the sound out of them.

Masumi’s fingers hovered over her keyboard.

“It’s pretty, right?” she said.

Selena nodded. It was why she was here in the first place — it was the night sky that had inspired her to struggle through six years of college, six years of astrophysics, that had led her to accept the offer of the EID and put herself through another four years of boot camp.

“It feels like we could almost touch it,” Masumi said. “Like, they’re right there. Just beautiful gemstones, hanging in the sky.”

“They’re millions of light years away,” Selena said. “And they’re made of mostly hydrogen.”

“Shut up, nerd.”

They fell silent again, just staring at the stars. What was out there, Selena wondered. What kind of life was hiding among those beautiful stars, and would she ever get to meet it, even now that she knew it existed?

She stopped thinking when she felt Masumi’s fingers brush against hers on the table. She started to move her hand away, ignoring the sparks that ran down her skin, thinking that it was an accident. But Masumi’s hand followed hers, slid on top of it, and gently fed her fingers between Selena’s.

“Let me ask you again,” Masumi said. “Do you think we’re going to be able to handle two months alone together?”

 _Oh,_ Selena thought, her cheeks going red hot at Masumi’s suddenly clearly awkward smile. _Well, all right then._

She decided to answer by leaning slowly forward. And only a breath later, Masumi met her halfway, and their lips touched while the stars glowed high above them.


	2. Gongenzaka / Sawatari

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Hot Chocolate
> 
> Pairing: Chaperoneshipping [Gongenzaka Noboru/Sawatari Shingo
> 
> Sawatari hasn't left his room in two weeks, and it's probably the depression but he's not about to admit it, much less ask for help.

Sawatari wasn’t sure who he was expecting to be knocking on his bedroom door at seven in the morning, but he absolutely wasn’t expecting to fling the door open with a swear on his lips just to find himself staring at Gongenzaka’s chest.

His expletive died on his lips, and he peered up to try and find Gongenzaka’s face overhead — he was so tall that he was almost too big to fit through the door. His face was as stoic and unreadable as ever, arms folded against his chest and feet planted like a mountain dropped in front of Sawatari’s door.

Sawatari looked back and forth around Gongenzaka’s frame — not an easy task — and tried to see how the hell he had gotten in the house and all the way up here in the first place.

“Put on a coat,” Gongenzaka rumbled at him before he could even say anything. “We are going out.”

“ _ Excuse _ me?” Sawatari spluttered. “What? Where? Since when? I’m  _ busy _ .”

“You have not left your house in two weeks,” Gongenzaka said, frowning at him. “You are going outside right now.”

“I most certainly am  _ not _ ,” Sawatari said. “It’s cold outside. That’s why I haven’t been out.”

Gongenzaka just stared at him for a long moment. Sawatari folded his arms and tried not to shift back and forth, trying to meet Gongenzaka’s gaze without blinking. He couldn’t do it. He blinked and looked down long before Gongenzaka’s gaze even flickered. Though it did, a moment later, to look back into Sawatari’s room. Sawatari automatically tried to move over to block Gongenzaka’s view, but that was stupidly impossible, he quickly remembered, because Gongenzaka was about a foot taller than him.

So Gongenzaka could clearly see the awful mess that Sawatari had left strewn all about his room — the piles of used tissues, the bed with a billion blankets that wasn’t made since he’d just come out of it to open the door, the books and comics that were scattered all over the floor, the computer still left open on his bed.

“Have you been sick?” Gongenzaka said.

“Yes,” Sawatari said immediately, grasping for the excuse. “I’m so sick. You should probably go before you catch it.”

He pretended to sneeze into his arm, and Gongenzaka only raised one eyebrow. He let out a rumbling sigh, and reached up to take off his scarf. Sawatari protested incoherently, but there wasn’t much he could do to stop Gongenzaka from pushing through the door. He didn’t really shove Sawatari out of the way or anything, more like he gently picked him up by the shoulders and set him aside so that he could get through. Sawatari was just so surprised at being moved that he spluttered for a moment before he could notice what Gongenzaka was doing.

“Hey!” he said, scurrying forward. “What are you doing?”

“Cleaning up,” Gongenzaka said. He laid his scarf on the back of Sawatari’s desk chair, and then slung his coat off on top of it. He scooped up a pile of garbage next, and dumped it into the empty wastebasket.

“Hey! Don’t touch my stuff!” Sawatari said.

He tried to push past Gongenzaka’s arm, but it was kind of like trying to move a pick up truck by yourself. A pickup truck that very gently scooped you away from it and stuck you back onto your bed.

Sawatari just sat there, blinking, while Gongenzaka began to methodically move about the room, gently picking up fallen books and closing them up before setting them neatly on the empty shelves. He cleared off Sawatari’s desk, smoothing out a few crinkled papers and stacking them up, and putting pencils back into their holders. He came back over to Sawatari then, picking him up once again and setting him on the desk chair, so that he could pull all of the blankets back into order, careful not to send the laptop falling to the ground.

Sawatari  _ wanted _ to protest, but, well...he hadn’t had a clean room in a really long time. Getting up the energy to put anything away was nearly impossible. It was kinda surreal seeing his floor clear for once.

Having finished his mission, Gongenzaka stood up and dusted off his hands. He put his hands on his hips for a moment, surveying the room and nodding to himself.

“What are you doing here?” Sawatari finally managed to splutter out, having gotten over the shock of being moved about so casually.

Gongenzaka glanced at him. He grunted.

“You have not been outside in weeks. You haven’t attended classes,” he said. “Nor have you responded to anyone’s messages.”

“I’m sick,” Sawatari lied again.

“Hm.”

Gongenzaka folded his arms and cocked an eyebrow at Sawatari. Sawatari couldn’t keep the gaze. He looked down at his knees instead. Gongenzaka hmped again.

“Come downstairs,” he said. “You do not have to leave the house. But I am making you something to eat.”

“I’m not hungry,” Sawatari said, as his stomach growled loudly.

“I will carry you downstairs if I have to.”

“I’m coming,” Sawatari said, leaping to his feet.

Gongenzaka pushed open the door and let Sawatari leave first.

“How did you even get in here?” Sawatari asked, as they made their way down the hallway and to the large, railinged staircase. “We have security.”

“I told them that I was a friend of yours, here to check on you,” Gongenzaka said. “They let me in immediately. I think some of them are worried about you.”

“They shouldn’t let people in without asking me or papa,” Sawatari grumbled.

“The woman downstairs, Tsukiko-san, she said you hadn’t been out of your room in a while. Or eaten anything other than convenience store onigiri.”

Gongenzaka shot Sawatari a side-long look and Sawatari blushed, refusing to even respond to that. Damn Tsukiko. Selling him out like that.

He wasn’t sure how Gongenzaka knew where the kitchen was already, but he led the way, marching through the doors. The lights were already turned on and there was something on the stove, sending a waft of something...chocolatey through the air.

“Did you  _ plan _ this?” Sawatari said.

“Tsukiko-san helped,” Gongenzaka said. “Now sit down. Do you eat eggs?”

“Of course I eat eggs. Who doesn’t eat eggs?”

Gongenzaka actually cracked a little smirk at that, and Sawatari ducked his head down to hide the heat that spread over his cheeks. Gongenzaka marched over to the stovetop, taking the lid off of the top and letting the full force of the chocolatey scent blast through the kitchen. Oh — hot chocolate, Sawatari realized. It was the peppermint kind, too — his favorite.

Gongenzaka nodded, and took the pot off the stove, pouring the hot chocolate into a mug left on the counter. He turned and shoved it at Sawatari, who automatically grabbed it before it spilled across his front.

The heat seeped through the ceramic and into his hands, steam wafting over his face. He stared at it for a minute. When was the last time he’d had anything warm to drink? He hadn’t even wanted to make tea.

He looked up, watching Gongenzaka start opening up cabinets, grumbling as he looked for pans. Why was he  _ here _ ? Why was he bothering with him, doing all of this stuff without being asked? Cleaning up his room and making him something to eat and forcing him to leave his little blanket hovel that he hadn’t left in several days except to use the bathroom.

He ducked his face towards the mug to hide the fact that his eyes were starting to blur with tears.

“Why are you here?” he asked.

Gongenzaka took a moment to respond, fiddling with the oven settings.

“Because you needed help,” he grunted. “But you were taking too long to ask for it.”

Sawatari didn’t want to cry. So he just took too big of a sip of hot chocolate and immediately scalded his tongue, yelped, and spilled a bit of it down his front.

“I meant to do that,” he said, flushing.

Gongenzaka didn’t laugh at him. But he did smile — and despite how big and looming he could be, his smile was the gentlest thing in the world.

“I’m sure you did.”


	3. Yuya & Sora

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Snow
> 
> Ship: Candyshipping (Sora & Yuya)
> 
> Sora has never played in the snow before, and he's not really sure what the big deal is. Yuya plans to fix that.

_ Thwump. _

Sora stirred, his eyes twitching.

_ Thwump. _

His eyes flickered open. What  _ was _ that? Was someone kicking his bunk again?

_ Thwump thwump _ .

His eyes flew open. He shot straight up, certain for just a moment that there was someone banging on the door, trying to get in, or someone looming over his bunk — 

His heart slowed as he remembered where he was. He was  _ not _ in an Academia dorm room, or in a barrack. He was tucked into the warm, cozy pile of blankets that Yoko had dumped on him last night when he’d made the mistake of shivering slightly where she could see him, on a bed in the Sakaki’s old guest room which was now, Yoko insisted, Sora’s room.

He peered around the dim room, light seeping through the drapes, trying to figure out what had been making that sound. What time was it, anyway? His internal clock was getting all messed up now that he didn’t have any drill sergeants screaming at him to wake up every morning. Yoko only woke him when he had class, and there wasn’t any right now for winter break.

_ Thwump. _

The sound was coming from his window. Was there some kind of bird smacking into the glass?

Frowning, he slid out of the blankets and padded on his toes over to the window, pulling the drapes back just a crack. 

_ THWUMP. _

He yelped, jumping back as something hit the window and splattered. What the hell?? Were they under attack? He leaned over to grab his Duel Disk from the table beside the bed, pulling it on before daring the pull the curtains back again.

Oh, he thought, mouth dropping open.  _ Whoa _ .

The entire world outside was white. Icicles hung from the top of his window, the panes iced over with frosty designs. Snow blanketed the whole ground, the roof of the house behind them, covering up dumpsters and cars to make little lumps in an otherwise unbroken land of white.

The only color down below was the shape of a person standing below his window, decked out in the most garishly bright orange coat and pants with a big red scarf wrapped around his face. It was only by the tuft of green sticking out of his floppy hat that Sora knew it was Yuya. He waved his arms back and forth below, jumping up and down once Sora appeared in the window.

He bent down, scooped up some snow in his gloved hands, and then flung it towards Sora’s window again. Sora jumped when it splattered against the glass — but it definitely solved the mystery. Yuya had been throwing snowballs.

It was ice cold out there, but Sora wriggled the window open a crack anyway.

“What are you doing?” he shouted.

“Snowball alarm clock!” Yuya shouted back. “Come on out, Sora!! It’s great!!”

Sora looked dubiously out at the snow his breath fogging up the glass as the icy cold seeped in.

“I don’t have snow things,” he said. “Like, whatever you’re wearing.”

“My mom left stuff out for you downstairs! Come on, Sora, it’ll be fun!”

Sora hesitated. He wasn’t necessarily bad at handling the cold; Academia was on the ocean, and it was always cold there, even when it wasn’t winter. But winter and snow seemed like things that you were supposed to avoid.

Yuya bent down to make another snowball.

“Okay, okay, I’m coming!” Sora shouted. He closed the window before Yoko could get upset at the lost heat. 

Reluctantly, he left his Duel Disk behind. It probably wouldn’t fit over the snow stuff.

He slid down the fireman pole to the lower floor. Yusho and Yoko weren’t here — a check of the clock told him that it was already ten, which meant they were both working. But like Yuya had said, there was a neatly stacked pile of warm things on a chair in the kitchen. A plate of cookies sat on the table with a post it note from Yoko that just said  _ have fun today! _

Sora filched a cookie, suppressing the urge to find some corner to hide in while he ate it, or to shove it in his mouth all at once so that no one could steal it. There was no one around and no one here would steal his food.

It took him a few minutes to figure out how all the snow stuff worked — he’d never worn snow pants before, and putting on the scarf while wearing gloves was rough. But after an arduous five minutes of fumbling, he was officially as plump as a marshmallow. He moved like one too — damn, this really messed with mobility.

_ I’ll just go out for a few minutes to make Yuya happy _ , he thought.

He pushed open the door, and trekked out into the white world outside.

“Sora!!”

Sora yelped as Yuya tackled him from the side, sending them both crashing into a snowbank. Snow scattered against Sora’s cheeks and he coughed at the cold bite.

“What the heck,” he gasped.

Yuya giggled, rolling off him. 

“You came out! I didn’t know if you would.”

“I’m not a party pooper,” Sora shot at him. “Ugh. It’s so  _ cold _ .”

He pushed himself out of the snow back, dusting off his coat and sleeves.

“Okay, okay, I’m here,” he said. “So what do we... _ do _ ?”

Yuya yanked his scarf from his face so that he could breathe, letting out a huge puff of frosty air, like a dragon breathing smoke. His cheeks were red from the cold, but he was already smiling that huge smile of his.

“There’s a bunch of stuff,” he said. He started to count off on his fingers. “We can build snow creatures or forts. We can make snow angels. We can go sledding.”

“None of that sounds like a real thing.”

Yuya scooped up a snowball in both hands and tossed it at Sora’s chest. Sora jumped back, tripped, and fell back into the snowbank again. Yuya leaned over him, grinning. Sora glowered back from inside his Sora-sized indentation.

“Or we can have a snowball fight,” Yuya said.

“Oh, it is  _ on _ ,” Sora said, grabbing a handful of snow and flinging it at Yuya.

It came out in just a dust while Yuya laughed and scurried off. Sora pulled himself back to his feet. Dammit, he’d been too quick. How did you make a snowball? He crouched back down to the snow, gathering some into his hands the way he’d seen Yuya do it. 

A snowball smacked against his back and he swore.

“I’m winning!” Yuya shouted.

“How do you  _ win _ ?”

Sora finished packing together a snowball, turning towards Yuya’s voice and throwing it. Yuya ducked behind a snow drift. A second later, he was back up, flinging a snowball and hitting Sora in the shoulder. He was laughing so hard he looked like he was going to fall over, and Sora couldn’t help but grin too. No way was he going to let Yuya keep showing him up.

He jumped over to the other side of the snow bank he’d fallen into and started making snowballs as fast as he could. A few sailed over his head from when Yuya threw them, but he was well covered. Hehe. He could definitely play this kinda game.

He chanced a peek over the top of the snow. Yuya was nowhere to be seen — but the world was quiet with the muffling layer of snow, and Sora’s keen ears could pick up on the soft crunching sounds Yuya made. He was trying to sneak around by digging through the snow. Tricky.

Sora gathered an armful of snowballs and burst over the top of his cover. Yuya leaped up at the same time, snowball ready, but Sora was quicker. He launched his first one to smack Yuya’s out of his hand, and then grabbed two at once and threw them at Yuya’s chest. Yuya spluttered back, laughing, and Sora tried to rush forward so that he could barrage him.

Unfortunately, he was not used to running through snow. He tripped when his boot crunched through the top layer and went crashing face first into the snow.

He spat out snowflakes while Yuya wandered over, crouching in front of him.

“Having fun yet?” Yuya said.

Sora’s cheeks were flushed and red and his nose hurt from the cold, and moving in this damn stuff with all this clothing on was  _ impossible _ . 

But he couldn’t stop smiling, either.

He grabbed one of his fallen snowballs and dropped it on Yuya’s head. Yuya spluttered and choked on his laughter as he fell backwards.

“I might be,” he said. “Now don’t let your guard down again!”


	4. Yuzu / Masumi / Ruri / Rin / Selena

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Candy Canes
> 
> Ship: Gembraceletshipping (Yuzu/Masumi/Ruri/Rin/Selena)
> 
> [Fantasy AU] Masumi has been traveling the continent with a quartet of eccentric fae girls for several months now, so while she's _confused_ at the fact that they're all suddenly giving her candy canes out of the blue, she's not exactly surprised.

“Has anyone given you one of these yet?”

Masumi turned, blinking. She had to cross her eyes, because Yuzu was dangling the item inches from her face, and eventually just took a step back so that she could see it.

Yuzu held a strange looking hook between her fingers. It was white and red striped, and looked shiny, like it might be made of some kind of colored metal, or porcelain? 

Masumi glanced up at Yuzu, trying to figure out what she was up to. The fae girls she’d spent the last three months traveling with could be an odd bunch. Rin had once given her a handful of leaves and insisted that it was a sign of good fortune among the fae to give each other leaves. She’d worn them in a pouch for three weeks until another fae had laughed her out of a bar when she’d tried to offer one to him. She hadn’t forgiven Rin for that one quite yet. Rin had laughed too hard about it.

Yuzu wasn’t usually the type to play with her like that, but she couldn’t be positive. After all, it  _ was _ nearing the winter solstice, a time of great magical energy, and the fae girls had nearly been bouncing off the walls with the increased power in the air that had been setting them off. They’d been  _ extra _ touchy-feely.

“No?” Masumi finally said. “What is it?”

Yuzu brightened, her eyes sparkling.

“Good!” she said, grabbing Masumi’s hand and pressing it into her palm. “I’ll see you then!”

“You’ll see me  _ when _ ?” Masumi said.

But Yuzu was already skipping off, her cloak fluttering after her like a pair of wings. Masumi was left standing in the middle of the cold, snowy street holding whatever Yuzu had just given her. She looked at it, turning it over in her palm and frowning. It wasn’t porcelain, but it was solid and...there seemed to be some kind of thin layer covering it? She had no idea what it meant. She tucked it into a pouch around her belt and shook her head, turning back towards the road. She’d been on the way to the market to restock for their trek through the mountains after the solstice, and she needed to get it done  _ without _ the mischievous fae in her group.

However, she hadn’t gone more than ten steps before something bolted out of a space between houses beside her. She leaped back, hand snapping back to the hilt of her blade.

Rin skidded to a stop against the slick cobblestones, dropping to one knee and throwing one arm out to her side. Her dark cloak settled around her legs as she remained frozen in place for a moment.

Finally, her golden hazel eyes flickered up to Masumi.

“Am I the first one to see you today??” she demanded.

“I...why?” Masumi said.

Rin reached into her pocket as she stood up with a snap, and the next thing Masumi knew, Rin was grabbing her wrist and...putting the same strange hook-like object into Masumi’s hand. This one, however, seemed to be green and white striped rather than the red and white of the one Yuzu had given her.

“I’m first then!” she said, looking pleased. “Take it!”

“I...all right? Why?” Masumi said. “You know, you weren’t —”

But Rin only winked and grinned, her teeth flashing white as the snow that was starting to drift from the sky.

“I’ll see you there!” she said, spinning and bolting off. A moment later, she’d completely vanished into thin air. Masumi stared with her mouth hanging slightly open, still holding the strange little hook object.

She lifted it to her face, frowning. Was this some kind of prank, maybe? Were Yuzu and Rin playing some kind of winter solstice joke on her that would make sense if she was fae? She tried sniffing the object — oh...it smelled like peppermint. Was this a candy?

_ I’ll ask Ruri _ , she finally decided, tucking the new hook into her pouch with the other.  _ She never makes fun of me for not getting the others’ jokes. _

Once she reached the marketplace, she was finally in the midst of other people — other humans in particular, which she’d seen few of during her journey. Though none of them were of the same slender, dark-skinned build as her own people who hailed from the lowland plains, it was good to see a familiar sort of face among the more eccentric and varied fae creatures that she’d spent the journey meeting.

One of them shot her a grin and waved her over to their blanket, and she wandered over to check the wares. 

She’d forgotten about the peppermint hooks in her pocket when she felt a hand tap her on the shoulder. She held up a hand behind her without looking, indicating that she needed a minute — she was in the middle of a very important haggle for some climbing boots.

“You’re a rough one,” the cart-owner finally said with a laugh. “Deal.”

Masumi grinned, shaking on it and taking her boots.

“All right, what is it now?” she said, turning to see who had tried to get her attention.

She wasn’t really surprised to see Selena standing behind her, but she was a little uncertain about the expression that Selena was making. She wouldn’t meet Masumi’s eyes, her lips pressed together and her cheeks a bright red as she shifted from foot to foot.

“What’s wrong?” Masumi said. She leaned over when she realized that Selena was clearly holding something behind her back. “What do you have?”

Selena’s light blush turned into a full beet-red.

“I, um,” she fumbled. It wasn’t like her to be so nervous. She was always the impulsive one, blurting out what she thought without thinking about it.

“Kobold got your tongue?” Masumi said, raising an eyebrow.

Selena swore in Faeish, stomping one foot.

“Here!” she finally said, shoving her hand out towards Masumi.

Another one?? Selena’s peppermint hook was blue and white striped, and her hand shook slightly when she offered it to Masumi.

“Well?” Selena demanded, going red again. “Are you going to take it, or not?”

“I don’t know why you’re giving it to me?” Masumi said. “Are you going to explain?”

Selena flushed even deeper. She shoved the hook at Masumi’s chest, pressing it against her breastplate and then dropping it. Masumi had to grab it quickly before it hit the ground. She looked up to see Selena shooting her a self-satisfied, triumphant smile.

“I’ll be seeing you,” she said, turning and marching off.

“Hold on just a second!” Masumi demanded, trying to go after her. “Will one of you  _ please _ —”

But Masumi was stupid if she thought she was going to keep up with a warlock, as she disappeared immediately before Masumi could finish her sentence. She stood there, holding the peppermint hook in one hand and her boots under her arm with the other. 

“What in the gods,” she swore. “They’re playing a joke on me. I know they are.”

Well, she was determined not to deal with it. She shoved Selena’s hook into her pouch with the other two, and began to march back to the inn.

She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or wary when she saw Ruri waiting for her near the door to the inn. The cleric hummed to herself, eyes flicking about until they caught on Masumi. She immediately beamed, pushing from the wall and turning to meet Masumi.

“You’re going to give me one of those hook things too, aren’t you?” Masumi said, before Ruri could say anything.

Ruri’s smiled slipped a bit with surprise. Then her lips twitched. She put a hand over her mouth, trying to conceal her giggles, but it wasn’t working. Masumi rolled her eyes.

“Out with it,” she said. “What kind of joke is this? Are you all just trying to confuse me? Some kind of winter solstice prank?”

“You haven’t even let me say anything yet,” Ruri said with a giggle. “First~”

She reached into the pocket of her white robes, withdrawing — of course — another peppermint hook. Ruri’s was striped with yellow.

“What  _ is _ this, and why do you all keep giving me one?” Masumi said.

Ruri giggled, tucking her staff under one arm so that she could hide it behind her fist.

“It’s called a candy cane,” she said. 

“It’s candy?” Masumi said with a blink.

“Mmhm! They’re winter solstice treats,” Ruri said. 

She offered hers out to Masumi, and tentatively, Masumi reached out and took it. She turned it over in her fingers, and finally noticed the seam. There  _ was  _ a thin layer of clear wrapping around it. It was a peppermint hard candy in the shape of a cane.

“I don’t understand why the others were making such a big deal of giving one to me, though,” Masumi said.

Ruri tilted her head.

“Did the other three all give you one?” she asked.

“Yes, that’s what I was saying.”

“And you accepted it? From all three of them? And me?”

“I mean, none of you have given me much choice,” Masumi grumbled.

Ruri put a hand over her mouth, and for a moment, Masumi thought she was scandalized by something. But then her shoulders started to shake, and her cheeks grew red from trying to hide her laughter.

“What?  _ What _ ?” Masumi said. “Is this a prank after all?”

“No, it’s just — I can’t believe none of them waited to ask if you’d gotten one from the others yet,” Ruri giggled, wiping a tear from her eye. “Come with me for a moment. I’ll show you.”

Masumi glanced up at the sky. The days were incredibly short out here, and it was already getting dark. Someone was already out lighting the lamps down the street.

“We should be going to sleep,” she said. “It’s going to get cold.”

“Don’t worry,” Ruri said, holding out a hand. “It won’t take long.”

Masumi looked down suspiciously at Ruri’s hand. She glanced to check Ruri’s gaze, to see if there was a fae prank in here somewhere. Ruri usually didn’t tease her like the others did, but the winter solstice was making them all silly.

She sighed. Well, Ruri was the most responsible of all of them, so she supposed she could trust it. She took Ruri’s hand.

She felt the world pinch and wiggle around her, the way it did when any of the fae jumped spaces. The cold grew sharper, and then soft, cooly pressing against her skin. Ruri squeezed Masumi’s hand, and Masumi blinked away the disorientation of the jump.

They were suddenly in a small, icy clearing. All of the trees were coated with a thick layer of ice — or perhaps they were carved from the ice itself. A thick layer of snow coated the ground, but beyond the trees, a large circular clearing with the snow packed down to a low floor opened up to the icy gray sky overhead.

Masumi’s breath caught. There were fae  _ everywhere _ . Some of them she couldn’t even look at directly — their trueforms were making her feel sick.

Beside her, Ruri had entered her own trueform — she was a foot taller than Masumi now, her hair loose and made of dark purple-black feathers instead that flowed down her back and melted seamlessly into the dark wings that sprouted from her bare shoulder blades. It was eerie, but beautiful in a way that made Masumi’s stomach twist when Ruri turned towards her, smiling. Her face had become sharper, her nose longer and lips more beak-like, her eyes turning a full black.

“Are we in the Fae Rings?” Masumi said, gripping Ruri’s hand. “I thought humans weren’t allowed here.”

Before Ruri could answer, someone else did for her.

“They most certainly are not! Please, state your business for being here at the winter solstice festival, without an invitation!!”

Masumi swore, gripping onto Ruri’s hand as she spun to find the source of the voice. She looked up, down, and all around, before Ruri tapped her shoulder and pointed down. Masumi found herself staring down at a small pillar of snow, with the vague semblance of a face.

“I...I’m sorry, I don’t mean to intrude —” she started.

“She has an invitation!”

Yuzu’s voice snapped out over the snowdrifts, and Masumi looked over her shoulder. 

Yuzu’s trueform was eerily gorgeous, too, like Ruri’s. Her pigtails had become long, twisting pink vines sprouting with white roses, and her skin had become a pale pink, which grew out into white petals in the shape of a dress about her. She grabbed hold of Masumi’s hand, leaning over to the mote of snow.

“She’s supposed to be here!” Yuzu said. “Because I —”

“Ser Masumi has an invitation!”

A gust of wind exploded around Masumi as Rin appeared in her trueform. The slightly mint-green wind spun around her a few times, before twisting into a faint, warbling shape like Rin’s human form, with two topaz eyes hanging in her face.

“She’s definitely got one because  _ I _ — ” she started.

“Show it the candy cane!” came Selena’s voice.

Selena smacked lightly against Masumi’s back, and Masumi grunted as Selena clambered up her shoulder, tiny claws digging into her back. Her trueform was smaller than the others, and significantly shorter than Masumi, and her face had become like that of a cat’s, though her fur seemed to be made of spun moonlight.

“Wait,” Yuzu said, looking at Selena. “You gave her one? When?”

“In the marketplace, obviously,” Selena grumbled, her fur tickling Masumi’s neck.

“No way! Because I gave her one just before she got there!” Rin said.

“I caught her this  _ morning _ ,” Yuzu said. “Masumi, you have it, right? The candy cane I gave you?”

Masumi was way too rattled to respond immediately. She shook herself back to herself.

“Well, maybe if someone would  _ explain _ things to me for once in their lives,” she said. 

“You can’t be here if you don’t have an invitation,” the snowdrift grumbled.

“She’s got one!!” Rin, Yuzu, and Selena all shouted at once.

Ruri burst out laughing. She released Masumi’s hand and crumpled over herself, giggling up a storm. 

“What’s so funny?” Selena demanded.

Ruri couldn’t stop laughing, she was crying from how hard she was laughing.

“Have a look,” she gasped between giggles. “Masumi, show them your candy canes.”

What in the  _ gods _ was happening? But Masumi groaned, thinking of some not-so-nice words for fae who couldn’t answer questions, and dug into her pouch to retrieve the four candy canes she’d received that day. 

For a moment, they all stared at them. Then the snowdrift coughed.

“Well, that is most irregular. Haven’t the slightest how you’re going to divy up your time. But it’s not my business. Very well, you may be here along with your escort. Or escorts, I should say.”

The snowdrift slumped down and the face disappeared. Masumi stared at it. Then she looked up at the others.

Rin snickered first.

“Oh my god,” she said. “We all gave her one.”

“I told you all I was inviting her!” Selena said. “You didn’t have to do it!”

“You technically invited her  _ after _ I did,” Yuzu said. “So she’s still technically with me.”

“Will you all  _ please  _ explain?” Masumi begged.

Finally, Ruri took pity on her, rising back to her feet and still giggling.

“Every year, on the night of the winter solstice, the fae host a ball in the Fae Rings,” Ruri said. “It’s traditional to bring a guest, or a partner with you. And so in the week up to the ball, we craft a fine sweet that we call a candy cane. And we present the sweet we’ve made to who we’d like to accompany us.”

Masumi stared at the candy canes. Selena pouted, and Yuzu was trying to hide a smile now.

“You mean...” Masumi said, looking up at all of them. “You were  _ all _ trying to invite me to this?”

Yuzu nodded. Rin ducked her head, and Selena stuck out her tongue as she jumped off of Masumi’s shoulder. Masumi bit her lip, feeling a little bit of...warmth blossom in her stomach.

“So you  _ all _ wanted me to come to this party of yours?” she said. She shook her head. “You could have told me.”

“We’re not supposed to all escort one person,” Rin said. “Well, at least, I don’t think anyone thought that was something that could happen.”

“I told you all I was going to ask her,” Selena grumbled.

“Technically, I beat you all to it,” Yuzu said, wrapping her arms around Masumi’s arm, and her pigtail vines through Masumi’s hair.

Masumi snorted.

“You all are ridiculous,” she said. “Traveling with you is such trouble.”

But she reached out her free arm towards the other three.

“Well,” she said. “It looks like you all have to share me tonight.”

Ruri giggled.

“I think we always knew we’d have to,” she said, and she pecked Masumi on the cheek with surprising soft lips.

Masumi tried to pretend that her cheeks weren’t growing warm, even in the cold.


	5. Ray / Yuya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Christmas Tree
> 
> Ship: Beamshipping (Ray/Yuya)
> 
> Summary: While helping Yuzu decorate their school for Christmas, Yuya notices a sad girl at the bus stop. There must be something he can do to make her smile, right?

He sees the woman hesitating on the street corner, staring at her phone that glows against her cheekbones. It might just be the weird lighting; the combination of her glowing screen and the darkening night, but she looks tired and haggard. The bus isn’t due to come for another fifteen or twenty minutes, maybe longer if this snow keeps up. And the way she looks, sick to her stomach and gray with the cold when she puts her phone back in her pocket makes Yuya think that something must be wrong.

“Hey, Yuya, keep your eyes on the prize!”

Yuya startles. He quickly unwraps the loop of Christmas lights from his arm so that he can pass the slack up to Yuzu. She balances precariously on the top step of the ladder than you’re not supposed to stand on while she reaches up as high as she can to drape the lights between the branches of the giant Christmas tree.

He can see his breath frosting the air in front of his face as he continues to feed the lights up to Yuzu. Once the lights are done, they’ll need to start hanging the ornaments, and get that star on top too. He’s kinda looking forward to that part — it’s the only time that he’s allowed to climb the tree since their ladder isn’t big enough, and he loves climbing things he’s not supposed to climb.

“Your dad’s gonna yell at you for being all the way up there,” he calls up to Yuzu.

“Well then he should buy a bigger ladder!” Yuzu shouts. “Or maybe he should hire a real professional to decorate the school for Christmas rather than making us do it and not paying us!”

Yuya laughs. Yuzu sounds irritated, but he knows that she loves decorating just as much as he does. She spent the last two weeks planning and shopping obsessively.

He glances over his shoulder again. The woman is still standing there across the street, shifting from foot to foot. She’s all bundled up to her chin, but she tugs her scarf from her face to let out a breath of foggy air. Her pigtails lay against her shoulders, and she pushes one of them back over it. Actually, now that the street light is flickering on, she doesn’t look like a woman — she looks like she’s probably no more than a few years older than him, maybe a senior in high school at the most.

She looks so  _ sad _ , he thinks. Even from this distance, he can almost see the shine of uncried tears in her eyes. He wonders what’s wrong. And if she’s going to have to wait long for the bus. And where’s she’s going.

He continues to feed the lights up to Yuzu, but he keeps an eye on the girl. She pulls her phone out of her pocket again and stares at the screen. She makes no move to respond to anything there, though, just seemingly reading it again, before putting it back in her pocket.

Yuya glances down at the box of ornaments at the base of the tree. He looks up at Yuzu.

“Hey, Yuzu?” he calls. “Can we take a break?”

Yuzu lets out a heavy sigh.

“It  _ is _ getting dark,” she admits.

After a beat, she shakes her head. She unplugs part of the lights, leaving the part they’ve already wrapped around the tree, but taking the rest with them.

“I’ll clean this up,” Yuya says quickly. “Your hands are getting red, you should go inside.”

Yuzu blinks, looking down at her fingers. She only just now seems to notice how cold her glove-less hands are, and she tucks them into her armpits with a shiver.

“You sure?” she said.

“Super sure,” he says, shooting her a grin. “Go in and have your dad make us some hot chocolate instead of paying us.”

She rolls her eyes, but she smiles and nods. She shuffles back inside the school doors, leaving Yuya outside in the darkening winter evening.

He shoots another glance across the street. The girl has taken a seat on the bus bench now, flinching a bit when she tries to rest against the probably freezing surface. She digs out her phone again and looks at it once more, face falling even more as she looks it over.

Yuya bites his lip. He’s not really sure what he wants to do, but...she looks so lonely over there.

She doesn’t notice him crossing the street, doesn’t take her eyes off of her phone until he’s standing right next to the bus stop sign. Her eyes flicker towards him. She chokes on a gasp, eyes widening and flinching back at first, probably shocked that he just appeared.

But then she stops, and her mouth hangs open.

Yuya grins at her.

“Hey,” he says. He turns on the Christmas lights that he’s wrapped around himself, and they start to blink on and off in patterns. He readjusts the star balanced on his head, ornaments bumping his neck from where he’s hung them off his ears. “Merry Christmas!”

The girl’s eyes widen. For a moment, she just stares at him with her mouth wide open.

Then she snorts. She covers her hand with her mouth, ducking her head away from him. Her shoulders start to shake. He grins.

The girl looks up at him again — she doesn’t seem to be able to handle it. Her laughter bursts out of her.

“Oh my god,” she gasps, clutching at her stomach. “What are you  _ doing _ ?”

Yuya laughs a little himself, and the star almost falls off his head.

“People keep telling me I look kinda like Christmas colors, so I thought I’d see if becoming a Christmas tree was a viable career option,” he says.

That gets another roll of laughter out of her, and she doubles up over her knees.

“Oh my god,” she says. “All right, I’ll bite.”

She sits back up, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye.

“I think if anyone could become a career Christmas tree, you probably could,” she says.

He sweeps a bow, sweeping the star off his head like a top hat. 

“Why thank you!! I’m here all week.”

She starts laughing again, and he does too. For a moment, it’s like the rest of the world isn’t there — just the two of them, in a little bubble of laughter in the middle of a cold winter night. 

But finally, she starts to calm down. She wipes at her eyes with the heels of her gloves.

When she looks up at him, she smiles. And despite himself, he feels his heart skip a beat.

“Thank you,” she says.

He’s not sure what to say in response. He doesn’t know why she’s so sad. He doesn’t even know who she is. But her ‘thank you’ rings with so much depth that it briefly shakes him.

Headlights roll over them from behind, and he looks over his shoulder. The snow dances through the air in the wake of the bus pulling up the stop.

He turns back to the girl. She smiles at him again, and her eyes soften. He can see the sadness deep in there, a sadness briefly allayed by the laughter, but unshaken from its roots. His heart squeezes. He’s not sure what he wanted to do for her. But he wishes that he could have done more of it.

“I need to go,” she says. “But...thank you. Mr. Christmas Tree.”

“Any time,” Yuya says.

She dips her head, and heads into the bus. Yuya watches her go. The light still blink against his chest and shoulders, as he watches her climb up the stairs to the bus. He slides the star off his head and looks at it. His hands tighten around it.

Before the bus doors can close, he runs to the side of the bus, finding her in the window and catching her gaze. Her lips make a small ‘o’. But when he thrusts the star into the air and waves it at her, she wiggles the window open a crack.

“It’s a shooting star!” he says. “Make a Christmas wish before you go!”

He waves it at her again. The bus doors close, and it starts to pull away, and for just a moment, her eyes aren’t on the star — they’re meeting his eyes.

She smiles, and this time, he doesn’t see the sadness in it.

“I’ll wish that we see each other again, then,” she calls as the bus begins to pull away. He runs alongside it for a few minutes still waving the star.

“Then it’s a wish!” Yuya cries. “Keep smiling until then!”

She leans her arm out the window, waving at him, until he has to stop at the intersection, and he watches her disappear into the swirling, snowy night.

He lets his arm fall to his side, the star hitting against his thigh. He lifts his eye to the snowy, dark white sky above. The star feels cold on his fingers.

But he looks down at the rusty old golden finish, and he smiles at his faint reflection within it.

“Merry Christmas,” he whispers, though she can’t hear him anymore. “Let’s meet again.”


	6. Yuzu / Masumi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Angel
> 
> Ship: Lustershipping (Hiragi Yuzu/Kotsu Masumi)
> 
> Summary: As the legendary hero selected by the angels to drive out the forces of evil, Yuzu has a few other jobs as well: for example, attending dances to make a good impression on the people. Masumi, the angel assigned to be her guide and guardian, thinks this is an incredibly silly ritual.

“Must you? It seems a waste of time.”

Yuzu just hummed, dancing about the room as she swept out the trio of dresses that the prince had lent her for the evening. Masumi tried to stay out of the way, folding her wings against her back as tightly as she could.

“I know you’re not much for human parties,” Yuzu said. “But yes, Masumi. I really do need to. It’s important that the Realms see their legendary hero as someone like them. Plus, it’s good for the politics part — which we already agreed you’d let me handle.”

Masumi frowned, folding her arms over her chest. Her white silken robes shifted with her as she shifted her weight. Holding a physical form in this realm was a pain, and her body itched. She would need to dip back into the celestial realm soon.

“It seems...unnecessary,” Masumi said, wrinkling her nose at the first dress that Yuzu held up to the light. “How will you fight in that if there is an attack?”

“The castle is well-guarded out here. And besides, don’t worry — I’ve fought in a dress before.”

She winked at Masumi, and Masumi snorted.

“So you don’t like that one,” Yuzu said, putting the dress down. “How about this? Would this look good on me?”

She held a dark red, silken gown up to her shoulders. The sleeves were poofy at the shoulders, and the neckline was low. The skirt fell all the way to the floor, full and slightly dragging.

“You’ll trip on that,” Masumi said.

“You’re no fun,” Yuzu said with a laugh.

Masumi frowned, tightening her folded arms.

“This isn’t about fun. It’s about the only hero able to wield the Holy Sword not getting murdered during a masque ball and allowing the hordes of Hell to unleash upon us.”

“I know, I know. Okay, how about this one?”

The last dress she held up was...well, it was different from the other two. This one was long like the others, but didn’t drag behind her, only hovering just barely at the floor. The white, sparkly fabric was adorned with a thin layer of pearly white chainmail, which made up the sleeves as well. So fine was the metalwork that at first glance it could have been lace. Golden metal adorned the front of the dress in the shape of a rose.

Masumi was not always familiar with the workings of the human-like vessel made to host her divine soul in the physical world. But for  _ some _ reason, her cheeks were growing warm, and she felt a peculiar twisting, flip-flop sensation in her stomach. Perhaps she should have the artificers check to make sure her vessel was still working properly.

She coughed into her hand to hide the strange sensations from Yuzu, lest she worry.

“It...suits you,” she said. “And it’s more practical.”

“I actually asked someone in town to make this one for me,” Yuzu said. “It looks like your armor, a bit. I thought it...might make us look like a team.”

Her cheeks grew slightly pink. How curious. Was Yuzu experiencing the same phenomenon? It was true, though, that it did look much like Masumi’s own silken robe and the armor that laid atop it. The golden rose on the front of it also harkened back to Masumi’s own crest, which she would display on her shield in battle with Yuzu.

“I approve of it,” Masumi said. “It will make you look every inch the hero chosen by the angels.”

Yuzu smiled. But something seemed to tug her lips downward, and she turned the dress towards her, running it through her fingers so that the chainmail sounded like faint bells. A strange expression came over her face, and Masumi tilted her head.

“What’s wrong?”

Yuzu startled, eyes widening and jumping.

“What? What makes you think something’s wrong?”

“Your eyes turned downcast,” Masumi said. “I’ve traveled with you for long enough to recognize it.”

Yuzu turned her face more downward, her bangs falling over her eyes. After a moment, she sighed, slumping down on the fine bed behind her, between the other two dresses.

“I don’t think I can wear it,” she mumbled.

Masumi blinked. She ruffled her wings to shake some of the stiffness from them.

“What? Why not?” she said.

“It’s not one the prince offered me. It might look like a slight against him if I don’t wear one of the two he gave me.”

“What does that matter?” Masumi said with a frown.

Yuzu sighed. She slumped over, pressing her face into the dress for a moment. Masumi waited patiently — Yuzu could get into moods. She only had to wait, and eventually, the hero would tell her everything that bothered her.

“I think the prince wants to marry me,” Yuzu said.

Masumi absolutely could not explain the sudden stab of actual pain between her ribs at that. She wasn’t sure why her body stiffened, why she had the sudden desire to snap her wings out as though she were faced with a threat.

“What? Why?” Masumi said, closing the space between her and Yuzu.

Yuzu let the dress fall from her face, falling against her knees. Her eyes were shiny, like they did before she started crying.

“Politics,” she said. “Human politics. If he marries me, the legendary hero, it will make him look better.”

“Say no,” Masumi said. “You don’t have time to be someone’s wife.”

“It’s not that simple. The prince is giving us a lot of funding for this,” Yuzu said. “Without his support, we could lose a good chunk of our army. The money for supplies and weapons. Even the permission to cross through his lands to fight the demons. I could fracture the already shaky treaties between the Realms we’ve already rescued if he pulls out.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Masumi swore. “He would deny you all of that just because you don’t wish to marry him?”

Yuzu smiled, but it wasn’t the good kind of smile. It was the smile she had only when she was tired, so tired, but didn’t want to look weak. It was the kind of smile Masumi normally only saw out of her at the end of a particularly hard battle, when they’d lost so much and so many and Yuzu was trying not to cry in front of her army.

“So, if I don’t wear one of the dresses he gave me...that could set that back,” she said, almost mechanically. “He really is the best option out of all of those in the alliance, really. He’s...nice. And he controls the biggest share of the Realms right now. He’s got a lot of support with the people. It would be a good match. A great morale booster for the people.”

“You don’t sound happy about it,” Masumi said. “You always sound happy when you come up with good political moves. This doesn’t sound happy.”

Yuzu shook her head. She stood up, her slip falling back down to her knees, and turned to lay the dress lightly against the bed. She smoothed it out, and stared at it for a moment. But Masumi could only look at her. At the way her loose hair fell about her shoulders and crossed over her blue eyes, the way she bit her lip in order to stave off silent tears.

“Sometimes we can’t do what we want for the good of everyone else,” she said. “Sometimes I can’t be happy about everything.”

She let her fingers rest against the dress a moment longer. Then she turned towards the red one, and picked it up.

Masumi grabbed her wrist, yanking her hands away from the dress and letting it fall to the floor. Yuzu’s eyes widened as Masumi turned her around towards her, meeting her eyes with hers. 

Yuzu was the only one who didn’t flinch away from Masumi’s eyes. Few other mortals could look Masumi right in the eyes for an extended period of time — as close to human as her vessel was, the soul leaks through the eyes, burning into those souls who couldn’t handle the heat. But Yuzu was the hero chosen by the gods. She could look at Masumi, and barely even feel an ember.

“Ser Yuzu Hiragi,” Masumi said, gripping both of Yuzu’s hands. “You are the Holy Soul. You are the Divine Within Humanity. The Sword of the Heavens. You are the pure soul which we — which  _ I _ — have chosen to defend this world and all within it.”

She squeezed Yuzu’s hands, feeling heat spark between them, feeling her cheeks warm as she grew closer to Yuzu, inches apart.

“You are beholden to no one,” she said. “Do not let any of them forget that.”

Yuzu’s lips parted, eyes widening. For a moment, she only stared at Masumi. And for a moment, all Masumi could do was stare back. Yuzu may not be divine, but her eyes seemed to hold the fires of a thousand stars. Masumi could not understand the heat that had risen to her lips, or why her gaze had flickered down to Yuzu’s. She didn’t know why she felt so warm with her hands entwined with Yuzu’s.

And a moment later, Yuzu squeezed Masumi’s hands back. A smile — a real, Yuzu smile — lifted to her lips again.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

She released Masumi’s hands, and turned back to the dresses. She didn’t hesitate as she reached for the white one.

“I’m going to get changed,” she said. “Will you still be here for the masque, or will you return to the heavens until morning?”

Masumi’s vessel ached with the growing pains of living half mortal. But she smiled.

“You want us to look like a team, do you not?” she said, reaching for one of the masks laying on the table beside the bed. “It will make more of an impression if we arrive together.”


	7. Rin / Yuuri

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Pajamas
> 
> Ship: Flouriteshipping (Rin / Yuuri)
> 
> Summary: Yuuri had planned on bullying Selena into explaining what on earth is wrong with him all of a sudden, but unfortunately, Rin is the onlyone home, and she's not his biggest fan. Rin just can't believe Yuuri's never been sick before.

Rin was home alone tonight — Yuzu was at a dueling convention with Yuya, Selena had gone on a real live date with someone who wasn’t an video game character, and Shuzo (she still felt too awkward calling him “dad”) was out late with somebody who might be partnering with him on the school. So when she heard the knock on the door, her body seized up, and her fingers tightened so hard into her DS that she swore she almost broke it. Who was there?

It took her a good two minutes to work herself out of a panic attack that  _ it was the police coming to drag her away _ , reminding herself that she didn’t live in the City anymore, and that even Security would have no reason to arrest her. Her panic turned instead to  _ who the fuck would be here at this time of night and what if it’s a serial killer —  _

_ This is the last time I let Ruri read nosleep shit to me _ , Rin thought.

She forced herself to her feet, setting her DS down and grabbing the nearest bludgeoning item she could find. Unfortunately, that happened to be a thin hardcover novel, so not exactly reassuring.

The knocking continued almost uninterrupted, so by the time she reached the door, she was more annoyed than scared.

“Who the fuck is out there?” she shouted, rising up on her tip toes to see through the porthole.

She wasn’t sure if she felt better or worse seeing who was on the doorstep. Yuuri had one hand tucked under his armpit, a floppy black hat shoved over his head and a puffy pink coat zipped up to his chin. Rin immediately drew back with a burst of nerves. The  _ last _ time she’d seen Yuuri in the middle of the night, he’d kidnapped her. She’d still barely spoken to him now that the war was over, even though he was living right next door with Yugo. Yugo complained about him hogging the shower and stealing his leftovers — which seemed shockingly normal compared to the shit that Yuuri was known for before.

Rin hesitated a moment longer. Yuuri started knocking again.

“Oh my fucking god,” she swore. “What do you want?”

She unlatched the door and swung it open in mid knock, and Yuuri’s fist almost struck her in the forehead.

For just a second, they both stared at each other, Yuuri’s hand still lifted up in mid-knock.

He looked... _ miserable _ , Rin thought. He kept moving from foot to foot, stamping in his boots, and his cheeks were super red, eyes slightly watering. Was it cause of the cold? It was snowing pretty hard out there. She wanted to close the door before it swirled in.

“Oh, goodie,” Yuuri said. “I don’t suppose someone else is available?”

“Shut up,” Rin said, folding her arms and dangling her makeshift book weapon from one hand. “What do you want?”

Yuuri actually scowled — which was strange to see on his face, as he was normally giving her creepy smiles.

“Is Selena here?” he said.

“She’s not. Why do you want to see her?”

Yuuri sniffled — loudly. Hang on. Rin tilted her head.

“Are you...sick?”

Yuuri blinked at her. Almost absently, he wiped his runny nose on the back of his glove, swearing softly.

“Is  _ that _ what this is?” he said.

It was so surreally out of place for the normally suave, collected, and  _ creepy _ kid that Rin almost choked on a laugh.

“You mean you’ve never been sick before?”

Yuuri looked at her like she was stupid. Rin hesitated for a minute longer. Then she sighed, rolling her eyes.

“Get in here,” she said. “I don’t want it on my conscience if you die in the cold. Yoko will be mad.”

“Why, thank you for your generosity,” Yuuri said caustically.

It was kind of almost funny seeing Yuuri so flustered. It made Rin feel better about inviting her former kidnapper into the house.

Rin closed the door behind them, shivering at the cold that rushed in after her. Yuuri didn’t ask for permission — he just kicked his boots off and swept into the living room, flopping over the couch. Rin rolled her eyes again. Eye roll count: two.

“So is there a reason you came running for Selena at...ten at night because you’re sick?”

Yuuri sniffled petulantly, glaring at her.

“I was going to ask her for...assistance,” he said, sounding as though the words were being dragged out of him by force. “She feels  _ guilty _ for little old me, you see.”

“Yeah, well I don’t. Get your wet coat off my couch.”

She yanked on the hem of his coat and he scowled at her again. But he did sit up, taking off his coat and throwing it on the table. That wasn’t even halfway close to what she wanted, but she supposed he was determined to be a nuisance. She resisted the urge for a third eyeroll, and instead folded her arms, standing over him.

She made sure her stance was tough, because she hated to admit that she was honestly still pretty nervous about him being here. Seeing him  _ this close _ to her, in her dark, empty living room, with no one she could immediately call for help...

She shook herself out of it. Be  _ tough _ .  _ Don’t let him see that he’s scaring you.  _

Yuuri sniffled again, once more wiping his nose off on his sleeve, and she groaned.

“Honestly, you’re as bad as Yugo,” she said. “Use a damn tissue.”

Yuuri looked offended, but she ignored it. She grabbed a box off the coffee table and threw it at his chest.

She wasn’t prepared for him to flinch back with such ferocity, eyes going wide and teeth curling back like he was about to snap. For a moment, she panicked, her body telling her to run.

But the moment passed, and Yuuri looked down at the box in his lap.

“How dare you compare me to him,” he said, without a single mention of his reaction.

He dubiously tugged a tissue from the box and blew his nose into it.

He looked...pretty dizzy, actually. His eyes squinted a lot and watered, and Rin hated how much he looked like Yugo when he wasn’t sneering or scowling at her. She had to fight the urge to start mothering her.

“Okay, really,” she said. “Spill it. Why are you coming here when you’re sick?”

“I told you. To see Selena.”

“But why? If you’re sick, can’t you talk to Yoko or something?”

“She’s not home. No one is there except me. And I’m not  _ sick _ . I think I would know what sick is.”

Rin rolled her eyes. Okay. Eye roll count: three. 

“You’re sniffling, your eyes are watering, you look dizzy, and,” Rin said, coming forward and slapping her hand against Yuuri’s forehead, “you definitely have a fever. You’re  _ sick _ . Have you really never been  _ sick _ before?”

Yuuri gave her another one of those  _ “are you stupid” _ looks, and shrugged her hand away.

“I only came to ask Selena to...explain this,” he said testily. “I don’t need to spend time bantering with you...”

He tried to stand, but immediately swayed. He fell back down to the couch, his eyes wide as though he’d just been shocked by a jump scare in a horror movie. 

“I’m fine,” he snapped at Rin when he noticed her raised eyebrow. “I’m going back to the house.”

He stood again, and fell again. Now, his face contorted with frustration. 

Rin sighed. It was almost kinda sad, watching him try to fight his body like this.

“Just...stay there,” she said. “I’ll make you some tea.”

She hesitated, biting her lip and really thinking about the next part.

“And you might as well stay here for the night if no one is going to be home over there,” Rin said. “Yoko will flip if I make you walk back in the cold when you’re sick.”

Yuuri’s eyes flashed to her and narrowed. She scowled at him.

“What? I’m not incapable of being nice.”

Yuuri didn’t respond, simply considering her with a strange look — not quite his normal eerie stare, but not anything else she could place either.

She didn’t wait to see if he responded. She just turned and marched into the kitchen. She flung on all the lights as she went, as though that could banish the shiver running through her. Oh, shit, was she  _ stupid _ ? Telling him he could stay here? She definitely wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing that he was in the house. Probably sneaking into her room and doing weird things or something. God, she was so stupid! Why’d she have to be nice?

She threw the kettle on the stove with more force than was necessary, letting out a thin growl as she turned on the stove. She got down two cups, because she was definitely going to need some tea for her nerves.

As the kettle began to rattle, she glanced over her shoulder to see if Yuuri had followed her. He had not — instead, he continued to just sit there on the couch, side-eyeing her until a sniffle made him go for another tissue with a frustrated crinkle of his lips.

She sucked in a breath, reminded herself that he couldn’t hurt her right now and didn’t have a reason to, and left the kettle to continue warming up while she hopped up the stairs. If he was staying here, he was getting the couch — she wasn’t  _ that _ nice.

She came back down with an extra blanket and pillow and those weird guest pajamas that Shuzo kept around even though no one ever stayed over, and even if they did why would they need pajamas? They were about Rin’s size, and Yugo tended to fit in her clothes, so Yuuri should fit into them too.

“Here,” she said, dumping stuff onto the couch. “Bathroom’s down the hall.”

Yuuri gave the pile a cursory glance and immediately scowled.

“Those pajamas have...feet,” he said.

“So what? They’re better than sleeping in your wet, cold clothes.”

Yuuri continued to stare at the pajamas like they were roadkill. Eye roll count: four. Rin didn’t bother arguing with him — she just turned on her heel and headed back to the kitchen. The kettle hissed as she got over there, and she poured the hot water over the tea bags into the cups. She set them aside to steep and turned off the stove.

A soft pat-pat sound made her look over her shoulder.

She tried really,  _ really _ hard not to laugh. Oh god. He looked  _ ridiculous _ . Those footie pajamas looked so stupid on him — and he looked so uncomfortable it was impossible not to let out at least a tiny snort. Serves him right, she thought.

“So you put them on,” she said, looking quickly back towards the counter so that she wouldn’t burst out laughing at the sight. He might look ridiculous, but she wasn’t comfortable enough to provoke him yet.

“Don’t say a word,” Yuuri snapped at her. “Is this tea finished yet?”

He sneezed so loudly that it sounded like it rattled something in his throat. 

“Still steeping. Give it a second.”

For a moment, neither of them spoke. The hilarity of Yuuri in the pajamas faded pretty quickly, replaced instead with the nagging sensation that he was standing just a few feet behind her, and she was tucked right in against the counter, and this was way too familiar.

She didn’t realize her hands were shaking against the counter until she heard him walking across the kitchen floor and she jumped, spinning around.

He stopped — he was a good few feet away from her, and it was obvious that he had been walking towards the tea mugs on the other counter rather than towards her. At her motion however, he raised an eyebrow. A more familiar creepy smile tugged at the edges of his lips, and she swore mentally. Fuck. She’d shown him how nervous she was — he wasn’t going to forget that. She was so stupid. She should call Selena and tell her to come home early. Or tell him to leave after all. If she only had the guts.

“Is something wrong, Rin?” he said in that fake sweet voice of his, and she tried to keep the sudden spike of panic out of her expression.

“No,” she said.

“Oh really?” Yuuri said, lazily twirling one of his long face framing strands around one finger. “Because I could almost imagine that you were still afraid of me.”

“You’re not very intimidating in those pajamas. It’s like being threatened by a marshmallow.”

Yuuri laughed softly, clearly not buying Rin’s false bravado. God. She was so stupid. Her heart thrummed in her chest and she tried not to flinch when he took a step towards her.

Except, the next step he took, his face fell, and his eyes widened as his whole body swayed. His cheeks got more red, and he stumbled backwards, running into the counter and grabbing hold of it for support. He actually swore out loud as he put a hand to his forehead, visibly dizzy.

Rin’s heart slowed down again. Creepy or not, it seemed Yuuri was pretty incompetent when he was sick.

“Don’t overdo it,” she said dryly. “The tea should be ready.”

And to prove that she wasn’t scared of him — for his sake or hers, she wasn’t sure — she marched past him, grabbing both mugs of tea from the counter beside him, and squeezing out both of the tea bags before sliding a mug towards him.

He reacted the same way he had to the tissue box. His eyes widened and he flinched from the sudden movement of the object towards him. Only this time, he was standing, and the dizziness seemed to be a little too much for him. His mouth formed an “o” of surprise as he went down like a sack of potatoes, crumpling to the floor.

Rin just stared at him, blowing on her tea. After a beat, she walked over to him, leaning over him from afar just to make sure he hadn’t hit his head or anything, since he wasn’t moving yet.

When she leaned over into his vision, he flinched again.

For a moment, she just froze. Because she wasn’t equipped with how to react to the absolute  _ panic _ that flashed through Yuuri’s eyes for a moment.

He struggled up to a sitting position, pressing his back against the counter to try and get himself to stand up. He kept slipping, though; the pads on the pajamas weren’t enough to support him and he clearly didn’t have enough control over his limbs to get himself back up.

“Hey, calm down,” Rin said, seeing more Yugo than Yuuri in him for a moment. “Hey! You’re going to hurt yourself! You don’t have to get up!”

Yuuri stopped struggling to stand. His breaths came short and haggard, and he...he looked like he was about to have a panic attack.

“Are you okay?” she said before she could think better of it. God. Why was she so nice?

“Don’t pretend to care,” Yuuri hissed at her.

“I don’t.”

But there was just so much Yugo in his face that it was taking everything she had not to run over to him. She backed up instead, clutching her tea in both hands.

She’d never seen Yuuri look so scared before. He was like...like a cornered animal, down there on the floor, trying to breathe, looking like he was about to tremble out of his skin. And the way he’d flinched when she’d thrown the tissues at him, or slid the mug towards him.

Her heart slowed down again as she remembered that she didn’t know much about Yuuri at all.

“Yuuri,” she said. “Are  _ you _ scared of  _ me? _ ”

Yuuri’s eyes widened. He stared at her — then he laughed. It turned into a cough, and his whole body doubled over as he hugged his stomach and clawed at his throat.

“Don’t be — stupid,” he gasped between coughs. “Why would  _ I _ be scared of  _ you _ ?”

Rin didn’t have an answer for that. After all, why  _ would _ someone as creepy as Yuuri be scared of anything?

Well...actually, maybe someone like him was scared of  _ everything _ .

She took a scalding sip of her tea, just focusing for a moment on the heat that rolled down her throat. Yuuri’s harsh, scratchy breaths filled the silence. He looked...small, down there. So small that Rin wasn’t sure why she was scared of him.

She walked back to the counter and picked up the other mug. Moving slowly this time, she crouched down and held the cup out to him. Yuuri glanced at it. His eyes narrowed with a faint suspicion.

“Just drink it,” she said. “I didn’t poison it.”

“You’d be stupid to try,” Yuuri said, snatching the mug from her.

She retreated back to the other counter, leaning against it across from him. She took another gulp of tea. He blew on his before taking a very tiny sip.

They didn’t say anything else. Rin didn’t ask him what he was thinking. And Yuuri didn’t volunteer it. They just sat there. Drinking tea in the silence without quite looking at each other, or acknowledging each other’s presence.

This wasn’t progress, she thought. But it was something close to it.


	8. Shun / Yuya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Tinsel
> 
> Ship: Sparrowshipping (Shun/Yuya)
> 
> Summary: Yuya’s helping out his friends in the student council with decorating for the Christmas party, but an unfortunate fall puts him back in the sights of an old bully.

“Oh crap!!”

Yuya hopped on one foot, trying to get his balance back, but his arms were full and he had nothing to grab onto. The world spun as he crashed down to the ground, head spinning. Overhead, he heard someone snickering, and he felt his cheeks flush. 

His top box overturned, and ornaments went rolling down the school hallway, tinsel spilling out in a wave of gold and silver. Yuya hurried to get back up to his hands and knees, grabbing the box and righting it back on top of the other while he shoved the tinsel and garland back in. No one else moved to help him, though, copses of students going back to chatting with each other as though the crash hadn’t happened, while a few others still snickered at his fall. Yuya tried to ignore them.

A lot of the ornaments had already gotten far away, though, and he shoved the box to the side so no one would trip while he chased them down.

He’d gotten five of them into his arms, and was going for the sixth when someone else snatched it first.

“Lose something?”

Yuya tried desperately not to wither up on the outside as much as he was on the inside. He stood cautiously, glancing up at the towering form of Ankokuji Gen. Ankokuji held the ornament over his head, way out of Yuya’s reach.

“Can I have that back, please? It’s for the student council,” Yuya said.

“It’s for the student council,” Ankokuji mimicked in a high pitched voice. “What, you got a quota of these? You gonna get in trouble if you don’t have enough ornaments?”

“No, but they  _ do _ belong to the theater club, so, uh, it would kinda suck if we lost one.”

He shifted nervously. Ankokuji was so much bigger than him — and Gongenzaka was still down in the gym helping set up for the council’s Christmas party, which meant Yuya was completely on his own. He fought the urge to grab his goggles and pull them over his eyes like a shield.

Ankokuji took a huge step towards Yuya without warning, and Yuya flinched, trying to jump backwards. He caught on the baggy end of his pants, though, and with a yelp, crumpled back down to the ground. A few more ornaments fell out of his arms and scattered in all directions.

Ankokuji laughed, and Yuya flushed as he heard a few others behind him giggling too. 

“Come on,” Ankokuji taunted him, waving the ornament in his face. “If you want it back so badly, take it.”

_ Oh, dammit, don’t cry, not in front of him _ , Yuya thought, trying to breathe slowly.  _ He’s just a bully. _

Before he could do anything, though, another hand shot out, snatching the ornament from Ankokuji’s hand. Ankokuji didn’t even seem to notice it was gone for a minute, at least not until the person put himself between him and Yuya, reaching a hand towards Yuya.

“This yours?”

Yuya blinked. Oh, that was — that was the transfer student in Yuya’s class. Kurosaki? He didn’t know much about him. He and his sister had transferred here recently, though she was in a different class. He had introduced himself once, but Kurosaki had just given him a look and said nothing. There was a rumor going around that he used to be in a gang and that’s why he looked so scary.

Tentatively, Yuya took the hand extended to him. Kurosaki had a strong, but not overwhelming grip, lifting Yuya back up to his feet as though Yuya weighed nothing. He put the ornament in Yuya’s hand then.

“Need help?” he said.

Yuya blinked, coming back to himself.

“Oh, uh, if it’s not too much trouble,” he said.

“Hey!” Ankokuji said, finally realizing what had just happened. “No one asked for you to butt in.”

Kurosaki glanced back at him. His lips curled and his eyes darkened, and for just a half second, Yuya was totally positive that he was about to watch someone get murdered — and it wasn’t going to be Kurosaki.

Ankokuji seemed to pick up on the mood, too, because he shut up. Kurosaki’s eyes flicked back to Yuya. His expression didn’t change much, but...maybe he actually wasn’t so scary after all. The difference between that first glare and the pretty calm look in his eyes now was incredible.

And, actually...he actually looked kinda...

Yuya stopped that thought in his tracks before his cheeks went beet red.

“In the box over there?” Kurosaki said, scooping up an ornament and nodding towards Yuya’s box.

“Oh, yeah! Thanks.”

Kurosaki helped him track down the last of the ornaments, throw them into the box, and then even hefted it up himself.

“I can carry that,” Yuya said.

“We can each take a box so you don’t trip again.”

Yuya did blush that time, but he picked up the second box.

“We’re taking them to the gym for the student council’s Christmas party,” Yuya said. “Thanks again, by the way. I hope I’m not keeping you from anything.”

Kurosaki shrugged, following Yuya down the suddenly very quiet hallway. But he didn’t say if he had anywhere he needed to be, and Yuya didn’t push it. Scary or not, Kurosaki didn’t seem like much of a talker.

Before Yuya could try to open the gym door for him, Kurosaki shifted the box to one arm and pulled it open instead. 

“Oh, thanks!” Yuya said. “You got that?”

“I’m fine. Are you good from here?”

“Oh, yeah, we’re right in here. Thanks for your help!”

Kurosaki nodded, setting the box on top of Yuya’s again. He gave Yuya a funny little two-fingered salute, then tucked his fingers into his pockets and started off. Yuya stood in the door for a half second longer, propping it open with his hip.

“Oh, uh...Kurosaki!” he called.

Kurosaki hesitated, glancing back over his shoulder. Yuya knew he was blushing a bit, but he smiled anyway.

“I...hope to see you at the party!” he said.

Kurosaki blinked.

And then, very slightly, his lips turned up. He only shrugged, and walked off again. But Yuya filed away that tiny smile in his brain. He’d save that little memory for later. 

Humming to himself, Yuya slipped into the gym to a shout from Sawatari asking him ‘where the hell he’d been.’ He didn’t explain with anything more than a laugh. That little adventure was gonna be his secret for now.


	9. Ruri & Shun & Yuto

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Frost
> 
> Ship: Rebelfamilyshipping (Ruri & Shun & Yuto)
> 
> Summary: The first time Yuto saw the ice bloom beneath Ruri’s hands when she put them against the windows, he didn’t think much of it.

The first time Yuto saw the ice bloom beneath Ruri’s hands when she put them against the windows, he didn’t think much of it. He remembered his eyes twitching just a bit to watch the frost curl off of her touch, forming icy ferns against the glass, and thinking  _ that’s pretty _ .

But then Shun saw, and his eyes bulged. Ruri gasped when he grabbed her by the wrist, yanking her back from the bus window and cupping both of her hands between his, his eyes shooting all around the bus, face going pale, searching for who had seen. His eyes fell on Yuto then, and all Yuto knew was that he had seen something he wasn’t supposed to see, and there was real fear in Shun’s eyes.

So he did the only thing he could think of. He reached out and put his hands on top of both of theirs, trying to look them both in the eyes at once.

“I didn’t see if you don’t want me to,” he said.

Shun and Ruri exchanged a glance. He’d never seen them like this before. Ruri licked her lips. And then Shun let out a breath through his lips. He turned one of his hands up to grip Yuto’s, and Ruri did the same, so that all three of them were holding hands.

“It’s all right,” Shun said. “It’s you. It’s all right.”

But they said nothing more the rest of the trip, and Yuto didn’t ask.

Ruri pulled him into the girl’s bathroom after lunch two weeks later, locking the both of them into a stall.

“I  _ really _ shouldn’t be in here,” Yuto mumbled, listening nervously at the door.

“We need someplace no one will see me,” Ruri said. “I’m going to show you. What you saw that day wasn’t just your imagination. You...deserve to see.”

And she clasped her hands together, and opened them both up. Blooming from her palms, an icy butterfly coated her skin. A moment later, its icy wings fluttered, peeling off of her hands and sitting in her hand, fluttering its wings and letting off little gusts of frosty air. Yuto inhaled sharply.

“It’s beautiful,” he said.

The smile on Ruri’s face was even more beautiful, but Yuto didn’t say that out loud.

A group of girls came giggling into the bathroom then, and they had to stay quiet until they finally all took a stall, so that Ruri could smuggle him out.

“Did she tell you?”

Shun was waiting for him in the classroom after school, leaning against a desk, arms folded — silhouetted by the setting sun, so that it was hard to tell what his face looked like. Yuto couldn’t help but feel tension snap over his skin at the tone in Shun’s voice.

“She showed me,” he said. “But she didn’t explain.”

Shun’s eyes flicked to the doors. Back to Yuto. He stood up, slung his bag over his shoulder, and jerked his chin towards the hall. Yuto followed quietly. Shun didn’t talk again until they were out of the school, until Yuto could hear the sound of the track team chanting out their steps as they ran around the track. He couldn’t see Ruri from here, but she was probably in the crowd. Shun must have thought so too, stopping on the ridge overlooking the track. His eyes were unreadable.

“You don’t have to tell me anything,” Yuto said. “You guys are my friends. Whatever this is, whatever you tell me or don’t, it won’t change that.”

Shun’s eyes flicked to him. A half smile tugged at his lips, softening his whole face. His shoulders slumped a bit, as though he’d been holding up his tough act the whole time and now he was just letting it all go.

“Ruri wants you to know,” he said. “And I think...yeah. You’re the only one I can think to tell.”

He turned to Yuto, holding out one fist towards him. Slowly, he opened his palm, and with it, came a sprinkle of snowflakes — small and delicate and beautiful, rising off his hand as though it were snowing up. He closed it quickly, looking around to make sure no one else had seen.

“I can’t do anything pretty,” he said, and Yuto looked up to see his cheeks were a bit pink — or maybe it was the setting sun. “Not like she can. Just...little flurries.”

“It’s incredible,” Yuto said, and his breath caught, because it was. He didn’t know how else to describe it.

Shun’s surprised smiled was just as incredible.

“We found out we could do it when we were both kids,” he said.

His voice was low, even though there was no one else on this street. He kept looking at windows as though there might be spies above.

“We don’t know who our parents were, so maybe they could have done it too,” he said. “But people got scared. We got taken out of our foster home. Taken somewhere else.”

Yuto’s lips parted at the pain in Shun’s voice, at the shake in his hands. He reached out and gripped it. Shun’s hands were icy to the touch, but Yuto didn’t let go.

Shun didn’t finish the story, and Yuto didn’t ask. He didn’t need to. He already felt the pain.

“Shun doesn’t like to talk about it,” Ruri whispered.

She sat with her head against his shoulder, watching Yuto’s character kick another one off the stage on the screen. Shun snored softly over his own controlled, his head lolled forward.

“It sounds like it was bad,” Yuto said.

Ruri nodded. When he glanced at her, her eyes were far away.

“I don’t remember much of it,” she said. “I just remember being tired and aching a lot. I remember needles.”

Yuto shuddered. He put his controller down and let the fight finish without him, draping an arm over her shoulders.

“How did you escape?” he asked.

“We got lucky,” she whispered. “Someone decided we didn’t deserve it. They smuggled us out. Found us a new identity and a new life. We just have to hide who we are.”

Yuto reached for Ruri’s hand, and tucked his fingers between hers. She stiffened briefly. Her hands were icy cold. He remembered all the times he’d tried to give them high-fives in the past, or to shake their hands when he met them, or the times he tried to hold their hands before, and how they’d always tugged their hands just out of the way.

Ruri didn’t tug away. She sighed, closing her eyes, her fingers tightening around his.

“Are you upset that we didn’t tell you?” she asked.

“I dunno, are you upset that I never told you that I actually really like the k-pop you listen to?”

Ruri practically leaped up to her knees, whirling to face him.

“Wait, you do??? You said you only listen to emo bands!”

He grinned at her, and she flushed.

“I’m not mad,” he said. “We don’t tell everyone everything right away.”

Ruri’s eyes held his for a long time. She didn’t say anything else.

“We’ve had to move around a lot,” Shun said, flicking through his phone, not looking at him. “We might disappear again.”

The bus rattled along beneath them, jostling Yuto up and down so that he knocked into both of them on either side of him. They automatically slid their hands away from him, almost like a reflex. He shrugged.

“That’s all right. I’ll find you guys. Even if I don’t, we’re still friends.”

“If something...bad happens, you might get caught up in it,” Ruri said, pressing her hands into her lap.

“That’s what I said about my mom’s cooking. You’re still friends with me.”

Ruri glared at him.

“I’m  _ serious _ , Yuto,” she said, voice cracking. “Be  _ serious. _ ”

Even Shun sent him a sidelong look.

But Yuto didn’t feel the need to hesitate. He moved his hands out at the same time, grabbing their hands before they could move them away. It was cold. But his chest felt much warmer.

Ruri looked like she was going to cry. She gripped his hand with both of hers. Shun looked down, but his fingers tightened around Yuto’s. Yuto sighed, leaning his head back against the seat.

“I am serious,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere.”


	10. Yuzu / Yuya / Sora

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Ice Skating
> 
> Ship: Jubilantshipping (Yuzu/Yuya/Sora)
> 
> Summary: Sora joined Yuya and Yuzu for their annual ice skating trip for the first time, but skating is not as easy as he thought it would be.

“Dude.”

“I know, right? If he wasn’t dueling, he could probably do this professionally.”

Sora watched, hands gripping the railing and eyes wide, as Yuya shot across the ice. It was like he was made of air, gliding as easily as walking. He darted and spun across the empty rink, his scarf spinning around him every time he did a spin, or suddenly switched to just a single leg. Once, he jumped and spun, landing with the ease of someone who’d been doing it for years.

Yuzu downed another gulp of water beside him, her cheeks flushed red from the cold.

“Yuya and I have been doing this every winter as part of our Entertainment training,” she said. “We figured it would only help with the athletic part of it.”

“No wonder you guys are like monkeys on those Action Fields,” Sora said, shaking his head. “You guys are good at  _ everything _ .”

Yuzu laughed. She nudged him with her shoulder.

“Well? You want to give it another go?”

Sora flushed, and it wasn’t from the cold. His butt still ached from the billion times he’d fallen over — he’d been way too cocky, assuming that his Academia training and his own athletic prowess would lend itself to something he’d never tried before.

“Nah, I’ll just watch you guys for a bit,” he said. “Try to figure it out from here.”

Yuzu frowned, looking unconvinced. But she never pushed him, and he was grateful for it. She squeezed his shoulder with her mittened hand, and then made her way around the railing and back onto the ice.

Yuya spun to meet her, and for a moment, they just skated around each other.

There was no music, but it was almost like they could hear something that helped their steps match each others. Yuya grabbed Yuzu’s hand and she twirled him, the two of them releasing to spin off in opposite directions before spinning back towards each other again.

It was mesmerizing, how effortlessly the two of them matched each other’s pace. They really could have been professional pair skaters with skills like that. Even in their puffy coats and scarves they looked elegant.

It took at least a few minutes before the novelty of watching them wore off, and he started to feel antsy. He was all by himself over here on the bench. He wanted to get out there.

But...he definitely couldn’t match their pace. He’d just trip over his feet again, or worse, drag them down onto the ice with him. He’d be in the way.

Ice sprayed the air as Yuya skidded to a stop in front of Sora, bumping into the railing.

“Sora!” he said, eyes alight. “Come on! Get out here!”

He threw his hand over the railing, but Sora didn’t take it, tightening his grip on the edge of the bench.

“Nah, it’s okay. I don’t wanna interrupt you guys.”

“Come onn,” Yuya said. “You can’t come all the way out here with us and mope the whole time.”

“I’m not  _ moping _ . I just don’t wanna drag you down.”

Yuzu skidded over to the railing next, leaning her elbows against it.

“Sora, he’s not going to give up,” she said. “He’ll keep bothering you.”

“She’s right, I will,” Yuya said, hand still extended stubbornly out. “Come on. One more try, okay?”

Sora folded his arms, trying to look stubborn. But Yuya had his puppy dog eyes now, and...dammit. Sora couldn’t handle the puppy dog eyes. He sighed, and took Yuya’s hand.

“Fine,” he said. “But if I fall over again, I’m done.”

“That’s not going to be a problem,” Yuya said.

Sora didn’t have a chance to ask him what he meant by that, because Yuya dragged him around to the opening back out onto the ice and then Sora was balancing on his skates again.

His legs wobbled, and his feet nearly slid out from under him. He choked, eyes snapping shut automatically before he fell.

Yuya’s grip tightened on his, and Yuzu grabbed him by the other hand, and he didn’t fall.

His knees still wobbled, but he was balancing. He was...he was moving forward, too! Sora cracked his eyes open. His hands gripped tightly to Yuya’s and Yuzu’s, and neither of them let go.

He was gliding. Yuya and Yuzu pulled him gently with them, and he was gliding — oh, whoa! This felt really cool! Yuya and Yuzu pushed a little faster, and even though Sora didn’t feel safe moving his legs with them yet, he slid across the ice as easily as breathing. It felt  _ incredible. _

“See? Not so bad, right?” Yuya said.

“Don’t you dare let go,” Sora mumbled. “I can’t really synch up with you guys.”

Yuzu laughed and squeezed his hand.

“We’re already synched up,” she said. “Take your time, Sora. We’ll match you right now.”

“But I’m slowing you down...”

“Nah,” said Yuya, squeezing Sora’s hand too. “It’s way more fun to skate together.”

Sora clung to their hands, feeling the heat of their palms through their gloves. But he nodded.

“Okay,” he said. “So teach me how to help us all skate together then.”


	11. Selena / Gloria

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Eggnog
> 
> Ship: Athenashipping (Selena/Gloria)
> 
> Summary: The seniors at Academia are celebrating their invasion assignments, but someone’s here who shouldn’t be.

Gloria rolled her eyes when her sister went down onto the floor with a giggle, pretending to be drunk on the eggnog. Two other girls giggled with her, flopping next to her and pretending to be drunk too, while someone else chanted for them to do shots. God. They were supposed to be Academia’s  _ elite _ , and here they were acting like fools. Worse, like  _ friendly _ fools. As though all of them hadn’t been trying to actively sabotage each other less than a day ago.

She sighed. She was only here because Grace had made her, and Grace wasn’t even paying any attention to her anymore. She picked her way around the bouncing students to get to the table, refilling her cup with more warm eggnog, and then heading for the door. Everyone else was way too excitable and stupid to notice she was leaving. And they were supposed to lead the invasion. Ridiculous.

She left the party room behind for the chilly hallways of Academia instead. They weren’t far from the courtyard from here. She made her way through the dark, empty hallways and down to the doors. They were locked. But she had a high enough clearance that she could unlock them, so she pushed out into the cold, freezing courtyard.

That was better, she thought, shivering against the bitter cold. Much better than the stuffy heat of all of those bodies grinding against each other. The cold was sharp, making her alert and tense, like a real soldier ought to be.

The sky overhead hung high and dark, dotted with clear stars. None of the lights were on out here, so she could see every single one of them in between the surveillance spires. She took a sip of the eggnog, letting it warm her core. Here, it was utter silence. She could hear her own steady heartbeat. Perfect. Now this was how you prepared for an invasion. Quiet vigilance.

It was so quiet, in fact, that her ears caught on the tiniest scrabble of stones in an instant.

She whirled, hand shooting out. A soft gasp and swear echoed through the courtyard when her hand caught on something trying to shoot past her for the door. She tightened her fingers into the fabric she’d grabbed and flung her captured prey to the ground in front of her, placing herself in front of the door to prevent an escape.

She hadn’t even spilled her drink, she thought with some satisfaction.

The girl in front of her was younger than Gloria. Probably thirteen at the most. She looked ragged — her hair was coming undone from its ponytail and there were pine needles and dirt twisted into the strands. Her clothes were rumpled and stained with dirt, and her cheeks were so red from the cold it looked like she might be on fire.

She had a fiery sort of glare despite that though, leaping right back up to her feet and taking a stance with both fists up. Gloria couldn’t help but smirk. Kid had guts.

“What are you doing out here?” she said. “It’s off limits at this time of night.”

“I could ask you that,” the girl said, eyes flashing.

Gloria chuckled. Gutsy. She liked it.

By way of answer, she lifted her arm and showed off her Duel Disk. It was clear the girl was Academia, and not a spy, because her eyes instantly widened as they caught on Gloria’s lieutenant colonel insignia. Immediately, the girl dropped her stance, snapping her feet together and saluting.

“Forgive me, ma’am, I didn’t realize who you were.”

Gutsy  _ and _ disciplined. Gloria was liking her more by the second. Gloria chuckled again, swirling her drink.

“At ease,” she said, and the girl immediately went into parade rest. “So, kid...how about you tell me your name and rank?”

“Selena, ma’am. And...I don’t...have one.”

Her cheeks got even redder than before, but she didn’t falter in her stance. Gloria considered her for a moment. She was young sure, but there were quite a few kids her age who had been cleared for the invasion or for other roles. She didn’t seem like the kind to get passed over. And Gloria had never seen or heard of her before.

“Which class are you in?”

Selena’s eyes flicked down.

“I’m not,” she said. “...not in any, ma’am.”

Gloria blinked. Okay, now she was getting confused. If this kid was from Academia, why wasn’t she in a class?

“Okay, I’ll bite,” she said, sighing as she took a seat on the bench near her. “What are you doing in here?”

Selena bit her lip, for a moment actually looking her age. She considered Gloria for a long moment, as though determining whether to lie or not.

“I...I’m not allowed to be in the invasion,” she said finally. “Even though my simulation scores are in the top percentile. The Professor won’t allow me to join.”

Gloria raised an eyebrow.

“You talk to the Professor much?” she said.

“He’s my teacher,” Selena said.

Something clicked in Gloria’s head, then. Oooh. So this was the Professor’s pet student that Gloria had often heard of. She’d heard of the kid appearing in random classes before getting shooed out, or challenging squadrons in the middle of classes and then taking them all out. No one had any idea why she wasn’t in a regular class with anyone else. Grace was always saying it was because she was probably the Professor’s secret love child.

“So why aren’t you going on the invasion if you’re so good?” Gloria said.

“I don’t  _ know _ ,” Selena said, and some of her discipline broke with the frustration in her voice. “I was — I was going to join you guys. So that I could prove myself.”

“You were planning on sneaking out with us? That would have been tough, kid. We’re in formation — we’d notice a passenger.”

“Not necessarily,” Selena said. “I’ve looked the schematics over. Your normal formation before transfer will take place inside the courtyard, and squads will move in waves. There’s a series of hedges right beside wave four. All I have to do is stay inside one of those, and touch a pant leg near me to go along. After that, I can make my way.”

Resourceful. Reckless and impulsive and probably stupid, but resourceful. Gloria couldn’t help but admire that. She took another sip of her eggnog.

“Are you going to report me, ma’am?” Selena said.

Gloria considered her a moment. Despite the cold, Selena barely trembled. Her gaze was harsh and tough. There was a limberness to her stance, something that suggested explosive speed and agility. If her simulation scores really were as high as she said she was, it would be a damn shame if she wasn’t in the invasion. Not that there was much Gloria could do about it.

Selena’s shaking knees were starting to be annoying, though, so Gloria stood up. She shoved the eggnog at Selena’s chest.

“Get something warm in you,” she said. “You’ll be useless in an invasion if you’re suffering pneumonia.”

Selena blinked with surprise. Her fingers closed around the cup, though, and Gloria stepped back. She made a show of yawning.

“Nothing like a walk in an empty courtyard to clear your head before the big day,” she said, not looking at Selena.

Selena blinked. Her lips parted.

Gloria didn’t look at her again. But she did shoot the girl a thumb’s up behind her back as she made her way back inside.

They probably wouldn’t see each other again. The Professor would definitely pick her up before she could get out with the first invasion wave.

But damn if Gloria didn’t want to see her try.


	12. Rin / Yugo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Cider
> 
> Ship: Appleshipping (Rin / Yugo)
> 
> Summary: Rin is a witch who works with the Good Folk, not demons. So it's really annoying that her attempt to make cider ended up with her accidentally summoning a demon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw i know only like four people are reading this but as a heads up, this will probably be on a hiatus for the weekend since i will be at a convention. thanks and peace <3

The end of the year, Rin decided, was the worst. 

She had one million customers constantly flooding through her tiny shop, touching things they weren’t supposed to touch, breaking potions that she had to then clean up before someone got turned into a toad, asking for wild requests to give as gifts for Christmas, demanding things that weren’t even possible through magic, and she had plenty of her own work to tend to for Yule, too! She didn’t even have time to enjoy the nice, icy cold weather and all the things she loved about winter.

She ground her teeth as she swept the last of the glass into a dustpan from the broken bottle that her last customer had left her with. Her doors were finally, mercifully closed to all of the Christmas shoppers. Stupid Christmas. Most of the people who came to her shop didn’t even believe in witchcraft, they just wanted to buy crystals for whatever New Age beliefs they were spouting, without even knowing anything about the real traditions they thought they were copying.

Rin sighed. She snapped her fingers to send the broom back to the corner, and then went about straightening her shelves after the rush. It took her an hour to get the shop closed up, and by the time she was tucking herself back into her little house behind it, she was  _ exhausted _ . The last thing she wanted to do was finish Yuletide preparations.

A gremlin snickered at her from a dusty shelf, and she shot at it with a blast of cold air to scare it off. Gods. She would have to get to work despite her exhaustion, or she’d have angry Neighbors on her hands.

She set a log in the fireplace, snapped her fingers to bring it to life, and set a pot with cider over it. She was going to need something warm to drink. Then she bustled into her storeroom to start collecting the herbs and berries and other supplies she needed for proper Yule preparation.

She spent another hour hanging holly over the doorframes and enchanting tinctures to spread against her window panes. The cider started boiling, and she startled awake in the middle of mashing berries. Oh, gods. She was so tired. She turned back towards the fire groggily, beckoning at the cider pot to make it float off the flames.

Unfortunately, her tired limbs were not cooperating. She smacked her wrist into the bottle of quicksilver as she moved, and her magic was a little too forceful, making the pot shoot off the fire like a rocket. It was all she could do to yelp and drop to the floor before it struck her right in the head, instead crashing through her supplies on the table and spilling over everything. Several things that shouldn’t be mixed crashed and spilled into the cider that dripped onto the floor, and before Rin could get up, the table exploded in a whoosh of purple smoke that flooded the room in a roiling wave.

“Oh, godsdammit!” she swore, coughing into her hand against the acrid scent. “Shit, shit, shit —”

She coughed, waving her hand over her face and trying to see through the smoke. Oh, shit. She wasn’t even sure what she’d mixed with  _ that _ . She needed to do damage control.

She managed to get to her feet, sending a chill wind around her to clear the smoke from her face at the very least.

A cough sounded out somewhere beside her, and she stiffened. Someone else was in her house. She summoned an icicle to her hands, leaping to her feet and spinning around.

The shape in the smoke wasn’t much bigger than she was, shifting from one foot to another and coughing as it waved a hand in front of its face. At first glance, it did appear to be human in shape — but it could really be any sort of Neighbor, and she wasn’t keen on getting into an... “argument” with one.

She stopped her thoughts in their tracks when she saw the tail lashing behind the shape.

“Oh, whoa, geez,” came a voice. “What’s with the smoke? Anyone there?”

Rin cast a wind throughout the whole room, banishing the smoke all at once. Her unexpected visitor blinked with surprise.

His eyes caught her like a fly trap — for a moment, she couldn’t look away from them. She’d never seen a creature with such pure, shining blue eyes. He had no pupils, his eyes as clear and deep as two pools of still water.

When she finally managed to tear her eyes from his, she knew what he was immediately. The horns that curved out of his spiky blue and yellow hair, the fangs visible through his parted lips, his pale white, scaley skin striped with blue lightning bolts, the thin membranous wings tucked against his back, the tail she’d noted before — there was nothing else he could be other than a demon.

For a very long moment, Rin and he stared at each other.

Then he smiled. It was a very bright, cheery smile, almost innocent, for what she expected from a demon.

“Hi!” he said, bounding forward until he was in front of her. She squeaked and jumped back. Her heel slipped out from under her. Before she could fall, however, his tail snaked around, grabbing her about the waist and righting her.

Her heart hammered in her chest.

“Oops,” the demon said. “Sorry! I scared you. Yuya’s always telling me I need to be a little less excited when I get summoned. You’re the one who summoned me, right? It’s been so long since I’ve been out! What’s your name?”

Rin’s brain rattled. His tail was still lightly resting against her back, as though he thought she might fall over again. Okay. Wait. She needed to think about this. How had she...how do you summon a demon by accident?

“I think there’s been a mistake,” Rin said.

The demon blinked. He looked around the room, glancing at her herbs hanging to dry from the ceiling, the sprigs of holly over the doors, the overturned pot and shattered bottles. His eyes lingered for a minute on her crest hanging on the wall, and his eyes widened with recognition.

“Oh!” he said, turning back to her. “You’re not one of the ones we usually get summoned by.”

“I definitely am not,” Rin said. “I’m  _ not _ a summoning witch.”

The demon put his fingers to his temples, looking as though thinking was an arduous effort for a moment.

“You’re...uh...you’re a....oh! Yeah! You’re one of the witches who works with the Courts instead of us!”

“A Neighbor witch,” Rin said, nodding. “That’s right. I didn’t summon you.”

He frowned.

“Well...I mean, you still did. I wouldn’t be here if you didn’t.”

He crouched down, poking at the stuff on the floor. He swiped his finger through the spill and put it in his mouth.

“Hey! That’s quicksilver! That’s poisonous!” Rin said, swatting his hand.

He yelped, shaking his hand out and pouting at her.

“I’m a demon, it doesn’t hurt me,” he said. “And that explains it — you mixed quicksilver, holly seeds, and cider. Those are my summon requirements.”

“What? Don’t you need a summoning circle, or something?”

She was surprised to see his cheeks go silver, and he ducked his head. He mumbled something. Her initial shock at having a demon in her house was starting to fade away. She might be a bit wary of summoning witches — demons and Neighbors didn’t get along — but he seemed harmless enough. She crouched down, leaning her ear towards him.

“What was that?” she said.

“I got excited!” he blurted. “When you mix that stuff, it sends a scent into the demon realm that’s tuned to me. And...yeah, normally you gotta write a magic circle so that we have an idea of the contract between us, but it’s been  _ so long _ since I’ve gotten to go topside that I smelled it and I just...uh...I just went without waiting for anything else.”

His cheeks went even more silver until his whole face seemed to be metallic, and she realized with a start that he was blushing.

This was totally not at all what she thought demons would be like. She sighed.

Then she extended a hand down to him. He blinked with surprise, gaze flickering up to her as though making sure she was for real.

“Well,” she said. “You’re here now. I’m Rin.”

He blinked, lips parting. 

“That’s not my truename, so don’t get any ideas,” she said, raising an eyebrow at him.

He actually laughed a little. He took her hand with a tentative smile.

“I’m Yugo,” he said. “And don’t worry. That’s not my truename either.”

Rin helped him up to his feet, then looked out at the mess again and sighed.

“So what kind of demon are you anyway?” she said, glancing at him.

Yugo puffed his chest out with pride, eyes sparkling.

“I’m the demon of speed!”

Rin tilted her head.

“What does that mean?”

“Oh!! It means I can make you faster if we make a contract! Or I can make other things faster, sometimes even time a little. Like I can make five minutes go by in five seconds. Or at least feel like it does. I’m not really sure actually, time doesn’t make sense to me since I don’t usually live in it. Oh! I can also make vehicles faster! The last time I got summoned someone asked me to make a motorcycle faster so that he could win a race.”

Yugo’s babbling was...surprisingly cute. It had been a really long time since she’d had anyone in her house, or hearing anything but the silence of her own breath. Even the Neighbors didn’t say much. It was...kind of nice.

“Well,” Rin said, surveying the mess. “I might appreciate a little help cleaning this up, and finishing my work for Yule quickly so I can go to bed...what do you usually ask in return for these contracts of yours? I’m not used to summoning.”

Yugo brightened.

“Oh!! You just exchange an equivalent amount of lifeforce. It makes you tired, but you humans generate more naturally already.”

Rin wasn’t totally sure she could trust a demon — even one as bright and cheerful as Yugo. Her fellow Neighbor witches had always talked about summoner witches like demons themselves — selling bits of their soul in exchange for power. But if that was really the case, there wouldn’t be that many summoning witches, right? Eventually they’d have to run out, and that wouldn’t be beneficial for the witch or the demon.

It couldn’t hurt. She was already tired.

“How do we do this, then? You need to prick my finger, or?”

“Nope,” Yugo said. “We’ve just gotta hold hands.”

He held his hand out to her. She glanced at it for a minute, and then at him. He really did have a puppy dog face. She couldn’t say no to that face — even if it might be exactly what the demon was after.

But she put her hand into his, anyway.

For a moment, nothing happened. She felt a spark, then, like static passing through her hand into his, and she gasped. His pearly white scales glowed a little. When he let go of her, she didn’t  _ feel _ different.

When she moved down to pick up her fallen cauldron however, she moved so fast that it actually startled her. She didn’t even need to readjust for the speed — it was like it was natural.

She was doubly surprised when Yugo popped beside her, sweeping glass and quicksilver into his hand.

“What are you doing?” she said, her words coming out at double speed.

He smiled.

“We made a contract to help you clean up faster,” he said. “It goes even faster when someone helps!”

She blinked. And then, a rare smile tugged at her lips.

Maybe a demon wasn’t so bad to have around after all.


	13. Tsukikage / Sora

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Peppermint
> 
> Ship: Stealthshipping (Tsukikage / Sora)
> 
> Summary: The hard part about buying Christmas gifts for each other when you’re both trained in stealth is that keeping it a surprise is almost impossible.

Tsukikage knew Sora was following him, but he pretended he didn’t. He pulled his scarf up to his nose, breathing a puff of haze through it. A few snowflakes drifted down from the dark sky, swirling through the street lamps.

Hikage glanced at Tsukikage. It was imperceptible, the way he glanced back to see where Sora was hiding, but Tsukikage noticed. Sora probably did too.

“Do you...?” Hikage started.

Tsukikage nodded without looking, instead wandering over to one of the store windows decked out with lights nearby.

“Do you know why?” Hikage asked, following him.

“I suspect he’s trying to decipher what I want for Christmas,” Tsukikage said.

Hikage actually laughed, but softly in that way of his, muffled into his scarf. They hadn’t worn their ninja garb in many months, and these thicker, winter scarves felt somehow surreal. Tsukikage made a point of glancing at some of the things in the window near him, and then moved on.

Sora was incredibly good at stealthing. If Tsukikage hadn’t been trained as well as Sora had, he would not have noticed Sora moving into his next hiding spot.

“I thought you were planning on getting him something today, too,” Hikage said, clearly trying not to look at Sora.

“I was. I believe this is the game we’re going to be playing tonight. I’m buying something for him while he’s following, trying not to let him know what it is I’ve gotten, while he’s trying to decide what to get for me without letting me know that he’s there. I suspect he’s trying to see what I buy for him so that he gets something of equal or similar value.”

“Do you think he knows that you know?”

“Oh, I’m sure he does.”

Hikage laughed again, shaking his head. Tsukikage cracked a smile himself, noting as Sora blended in neatly with a group that passed them — so perfectly for a moment that Tsukikage _almost_ lost him. Almost.

“You’re having fun,” Hikage said.

Tsukikage ducked his smile into his scarf.

“Is it that obvious?”

Hikage chuckled, nudging his brother with his shoulder.

“Maybe this game of yours is your real Christmas gift to each other.”

“Perhaps. But I do intend to find something for him, and I do intend for it to be a surprise.”

He nodded into the store next to them as they walked.

“I’m going in here. Will you come?”

“I think I’ll leave this game to the two of you,” Hikage said. “Good luck.”

He laughed again, shaking his head, and started down the street. Tsukikage waved, and then ducked into the store beside him. Sora had gone a little ahead with that last group he’d hidden with. A clever move, to move ahead of the person you’re following so it’s less obvious that you’re actually following them. However, that would give Tsukikage a few seconds to duck into this store, perhaps unnoticed — or at the very least giving him a few moments to browse before Sora caught back up with him.

The sweets shop was much bigger than it looked from the outside, but it was also very cramped. It would be difficult to see for a long distance in here. Perfect.

He couldn’t help but grin as he ducked into a random aisle. It would take Sora a few moments to catch up and decide which way he’d gone.

Or so he thought, as he tucked himself into a corner to look at the wrapped cookies, glanced back, and saw the faint flicker of a jacket going around a corner. The lack of any footstep to go with it was quite clear — Sora had already kept up with him, and Tsukikage had only barely noticed. Ah, well now the game was really on.

Tsukikage waited for another customer to walk down the single-file aisle, blocking him off from Sora’s only line of sight, and then slipped down an aisle in another direction. He heard the tiniest of clinking sounds as something shifted on a shelf, and realized with a start that there was plenty of room beneath a few of the well stocked tables for someone Sora’s size to crawl under. Clever. Well, Sora wasn’t going to keep up with him that easily.

Keeping very lightly on his feet, Tsukikage masked his movements with the movements of another browsing customer, and then ducked into an area where there were too many boxes under the tables for Sora to take that route. Taking advantage of Sora’s inevitable momentary recalculations, he slipped out the door. That store had been a fake out — there was a different sweets shop he was going to instead.

Tsukikage took a back way to that shop — and by back way, he meant darting through alleys and crawling over fire exits to mask his trail.

Confident now that he’d lost Sora, Tsukikage quietly entered his actual target store. This shop was much more spacious, with fewer places for any small individuals to hide. The main display, alight with lights and bags decorated with holly and wreath designs, sent brilliant light throughout the store, topped off with a large, cartoonish polar bear wearing a candy-cane hat that stood beside the table. Tsukikage made a beeline for the display behind it. He needed to take advantage of the time he’d lost Sora. There they were — the peppermint lollipops that he’d seen Sora looking at in another shop a while ago. Perfect.

Tsukikage took the package and headed up to the counter. There was only one person waiting in line, so he took a moment to check around the store and make sure Sora wasn’t hiding somewhere he hadn’t noticed.

His phone buzzed in his pocket as he reached the counter. He didn’t want to drop his concentration, but he dug it out while the cashier rung him up, giving it a quick glance.

Oh, he thought. The text was from Sora?

_Hey nerd if you’re not busy meet me at that big ass tree in the square in fifteen minutes_

Tsukikage cracked a smile. As though Sora hadn’t been following him around all day and knew exactly what he was doing. He tapped out a brief response to say he would be there, took his giftwrapped package, and headed back out into the cold.

Snowflakes started to swirl with more vigor around him as he made his way back towards the square. He took another shortcut, mostly just for the fun of it. He was allowed to indulge, wasn’t he?

He saw Sora before he reached him. The boy sat on a ledge near the ice skating rink, fiddling with his phone and chewing on one thumbnail. His eyes flickered as Tsukikage approached — immediately, a huge, triumphant smile broke over his face.

“Hah!” he said, jumping up to stand on the ledge so that he was taller than Tsukikage. “You thought you lost me, didn’t you, sucker!”

Tsukikage couldn’t help but smile, covering it with his hand.

“Am I to assume you did manage to follow me to the second store?”

Sora grinned, puffing out his chest. The effect was somewhat lost by the fact that his puffy coat made him look even smaller than he was, but it was adorable nonetheless.

“It’s not just about following — it’s about anticipating,” he said. “I knew you’d try to throw me off by going into a decoy store! But I had already guessed your real target, so after I tricked you into thinking I was going under the tables, I got to the other store before you!”

Tsukikage laughed softly, tucking both hands into his pockets with his package tucked under his arm.

“So, please, indulge me — where were you hiding?”

Sora grinned.

“Inside the polar bear,” he said, hands on his hips. “And I saw what you got, _and_ had time to text you and go finish shopping myself. So there! I win!”

Tsukikage couldn’t help but feel a bit of competitiveness rise up in him, and Sora seemed to notice the change in his smile immediately, his own triumphant expression turning suspicious.

“Why are you smiling like that?” he said. “I don’t like it.”

Tsukikage laughed, burying his face into his scarf for a moment. Then he stepped forward, hopping up to stand on the ledge next to Sora. Sora pouted at him, folding his arms.

“Because,” Tsukikage said, pulling his free hand out of his pocket with a small package. “What you saw me buy wasn’t your present.”

Sora’s eyes bulged.

“What? When’d you buy that??”

“A few weeks ago. I thought if I telegraphed I was purchasing it, you’d try to figure out what it was.”

Sora flapped his hands, mouth opening and closing a few times with the utter shock of it. Then he gave up with a flop forward, letting his head fall against Tsukikage’s chest.

“I can’t believe you beat me,” he grumbled.

Tsukikage laughed, wrapping one arm around Sora lightly.

“It’s like you said,” he said. “It’s not about following. It’s about anticipating.”

Sora blew a raspberry at him. Then he flopped down to sit on the ledge, patting the cold stone beside him.

“Okay, winner,” he said. “I’ll bet I got you a cooler present though.”

Tsukikage laughed again and sat down beside Sora.

“We shall have to see.”

Sora dug inside his coat and pulled out a small, red and green wrapped box. He shoved it into Tsukikage’s chest, and Tsukikage took it while passing his own gift to Sora. He set the peppermint lollipop box in between them. Sora glanced at him then.

“At the same time?” he said.

“That would be fair.”

Sora tugged at the ribbon on his box, and Tsukikage peeled back the paper on his. He heard Sora make a little sound of surprise, but he himself didn’t quite notice, because he was too focused on what appeared when he took the top off of the box.

It was...it was a rose. A dark blue blossom, delicate and glistening...glistening? He touched it lightly, and his fingers found metal instead of petals. He lifted the metal rose from the box, turning it slowly to watch the light catch over the incredibly delicate, twisting petals.

He heard Sora rustling the paper of his gift then, and tore his eyes away from the rose to watch Sora unwrapping the candy-shaped box. Sora’s eyes brightened as he turned it around, looking over the embossed cover of the box, decorated with images of twisted candies.

“The key is taped on the side,” Tsukikage said. “I heard you say you wanted something to be able to keep things in that you could lock up...”

“This is perfect!!” Sora said. “Thanks, Tsuki!! I love it!!”

He glanced at Tsukikage then, his face getting a little guarded as his eyes flickered to the rose.

“Uh,” Sora said. “Do you, uh, like it? It’s kind of a weird gift, I guess, um...I just saw it and it made me think of you and...uh...”

Tsukikage smiled, feeling everything within him growing soft and warm. He reached out to wrap an arm around Sora, pulling him close.

“It’s perfect,” he said. “Thank you, Sora.”

Sora nestled his head against Tsukikage’s shoulder, sighing as he hugged the box to his lap. For just a moment, they sat there, in the quiet and the cold, just snuggled close.

Sora tapped on the box of peppermint lollipops then.

“So anyway,” he said. “Are you gonna eat these, or can I have one?”

Tsukikage laughed, squeezing Sora’s shoulders.

“Go ahead. They were for sharing.”

“Yes!”

Sora popped back so that he could pop the box open. Tsukikage cradled the metal rose in his hands, feeling the cold of the metal against his bare skin. It shone in the streetlights as he twisted it.

“Merry Christmas, Sora,” he said softly. “I love you.”

Sora nearly choked on one of the lollipops, quickly pulling it out of his mouth. He ducked his head for a moment, cheeks going beet red. A moment later, though, Sora reached for Tsukikage’s hand, and Tsukikage turned his to grasp it.

“Merry Christmas,” Sora mumbled, flushing. “I love you too.”


	14. Yuzu / Masumi / Selena

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Gingerbread
> 
> Ship: Moonbeamshipping (Yuzu/Masumi/Selena)
> 
> Summary: Christmas with the three of them is a competitive sport.

“Masumi — Masumi I see you, don’t you fucking dare.”

Masumi froze dramatically in place, her hand hovering over one of the gumdrops lining the street of Selena’s  _ incredibly detailed _ gingerbread model of the castle from her favorite anime.

“It’s just  _ one _ gumdrop,” Masumi said.

Selena smacked Masumi’s hand away, and Masumi made a show of looking hurt, rubbing at the back of her hand.

“I spent four hours on this,” she said. “Don’t eat it. Get something out of the bag.”

“I don’t want the ones in the bag. You left all of the gross flavors. Let me have a green one.”

“No way! It wouldn’t make sense to replace a bush with a red gumdrop!”

Yuzu kicked open the kitchen door with one foot, cutting off their argument.

“Watch out, hot chocolate incoming,” she said. “Oh, whoa! You got a lot done since I saw it!!”

Yuzu’s face lit up to see the gingerbread display, and Selena shot Masumi a triumphant look. Masumi just rolled her eyes.

“Wait until you see the ornaments I made for the tree,” she said, accepting a mug from Yuzu. “They’re  _ exquisite. _ ”

“If you spent money on actual gemstones for those, your contribution is automatically invalid,” Selena said. “That’s expensive.”

Masumi rolled her eyes again while Selena took a mug from Yuzu, enjoying the heat against her hands. She’d been working on this display for hours, and her fingers were starting to cramp. It looked amazing, though. She was almost done — just had to add the dragon to the top of the roof. She was going to mold it out of mushed up Peeps.

“At least they look like  _ Christmas _ ,” Masumi said with a scoff. “This...exhibit doesn’t make me think of Christmas at all.”

“It’s gingerbread! Gingerbread is Christmas!”

“But what does a castle have to do with Christmas? You could have simply made a traditional gingerbread house instead of this...otaku thing.”

Selena stood up, almost sloshing her mug onto her shirt as she gestured wildly at Masumi.

“ _ Cosmic Prince Gunsmith _ is not an ‘otaku thing’! It’s powerful and inspirational, which you would know if you’d watch it!”

“I’m  _ not _ sitting through two hundred episodes of anime.”

“Guys, please,” Yuzu said, and it was in that  _ listen up  _ voice, so Masumi and Selena immediately shut up. 

Yuzu waited for a moment, arms folded, glancing at both of them in turn. Selena blushed and looked down. Masumi huffed and ducked her face towards her mug.

“Selena, your gingerbread house looks amazing, and I can see how much love you put into it,” Yuzu said. “Masumi, I’m positive your ornaments are going to make our tree look  _ stunning _ , and I’m so glad you volunteered to decorate it. This isn’t a competition, okay? It’s Christmas. We’re all working together.”

“You’re right,” Selena mumbled.

“Yes, you’re right,” Masumi said with a sigh. “Sorry, Selena.”

“Me too.”

Yuzu smiled. She clapped her hands then.

“Now! If you guys don’t mind taking a break, do you want to have a look at how I decorated the front room? I want your opinions before the party tomorrow.”

“Sure, of course,” Selena said, standing up and setting down her mug.

Masumi nodded and followed after them as well. They both followed Yuzu down the hallway and out into the front room.

Instantly, Selena felt like she’d been punched in the face with the smell of pine and mint mixed in with flowers. Her eyes bulged and her mouth dropped open, stopping in the door and just staring. Masumi froze in a similar fashion.

It looked gorgeous — the railing of the stairs had been wrapped in a lovely silver ribbon with big bows that had huge white flowers in their center. A lovely wreath strung with big red poinsettias and candles in the center that were the clear source of the lovely smell hung from the wall near the door, and on the little table, there was a gorgeous and expertly crafted flower arrangement in red, white, and green. A few curled ribbons hung from the ceiling as well, twisting to catch the light of the candles.

“What do you think? Is it too much?” Yuzu asked.

“It looks...wow,” Selena said.

“Yeah, you did...great, Yuzu,” Masumi said.

Yuzu brightened. There was something about her look, though, that made Selena take a second. Selena and Masumi exchanged a glance. Selena raised her eyebrows. Masumi cocked one back. They both looked at Yuzu, who was waiting expectantly.

“You’re competing as much as we are, aren’t you?” Masumi said.

Yuzu blinked. Then she grinned widely.

“And,” she said patting them both on the shoulder before flouncing past them, “I’m winning.”


	15. Yuzu & Sora

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Presents
> 
> Ship: Musicboxshipping (Yuzu & Sora)
> 
> Summary: This Christmas party is going well, but Yuzu has an extra surprise for Sora.

Dennis set off some kind of firecracker, and it sparked onto the ends of Sawatari’s pants, causing him to leap off the couch and start running around screaming that he was on fire. So in short, the Christmas party was going  _ great _ .

Sora snickered into his cup of punch while Sawatari shook Dennis by the collar yelling incoherently at him, Dennis still laughing his ass off while Yuya tried to break them up, clearly trying really hard not to start cracking up himself. The LDS kids were trying their best to ignore Sawatari, though Sora could see Hokuto holding his head in his hands. Gongenzaka got involved next, pulling them apart with the ease of someone opening up a bag of chips.

“Oh geez,” said Yuzu, and Sora turned to find her coming through the kitchen doors with a huge platter of cookies. “It’s been literally ten minutes since I left.”

“They’re just stupid,” Sora said. “You want help carrying that?”

Yuzu laughed, shaking her head.

“You’ll just eat them all before I even get them to the dessert table.”

“Hey, that’ll make it lighter to carry, right?”

She laughed again, her entire face lighting up, and Sora felt a nice warm feeling in the base of his heart. It was the kind of feeling that he’d never experienced before when he lived at Academia — the feeling of happiness that comes from seeing your friends being happy.

“Well, go ahead and snag one now before I get out there,” she said, tipping the cookies towards him. “I can see the look in Masumi’s eyes from here, and she’s going to eat them all once I put them down.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Sora said, setting his cup down on a table beside him so that he could scoop up five of them.

“I said one!!” Yuzu laughed, nudging him with her elbow.

“Too late, I’m licking all of them. They’re mine now.”

Yuzu rolled her eyes, but she was still laughing, almost hard enough to lose the whole tray. Sora grinned too — it was crazy how contagious a laugh could really be.

“Oh, by the way, Sora,” she said, before she moved on. “Meet me outside in a second? I just need to put these down — but I have something I want to tell you.”

Sora blinked, frowning.

“Tell me what?”

Her mischievous grin let him know that it was probably a fun sort of secret, but one that she wasn’t going to part with easily.

“I’ll tell you in a minute!! Meet me just outside the door. I’ll be right behind you — trust me.”

Just a few months ago, if someone had told him ‘trust me’, he would have assumed they were planning to try and smother him in his sleep later, or at the very least try to sabotage his duel rankings. But the way Yuzu said him made him feel strangely soft and fuzzy inside.

“All right,” he said. “See you in a minute.”

She winked, and dodged through the chaos of the party towards the dessert table. Sora hesitated for just a moment. But, well, she said she’d be right behind him. He turned and slipped out through the kitchen towards towards the hallway. He popped a whole sugar cookie in his mouth on the way.

He was on his second cookie by the time he reached the door, pushing out into the chill. Should he grab his coat? Nah, Yuzu probably wouldn’t want to talk out here for very long. It was cold, though. He breathed out, watching his breath fog in front of him, wisping past the street lamps. The cold air brushed his cheeks and he could feel his fingers protesting already. He stuck his third cookie into his mouth to ignore it, waiting for Yuzu.

He stood on her front step through his fourth cookie when the door finally opened, and a breathless Yuzu appeared.

“Sorry!” she said, stepping out and closing the door behind her. “Allen tried to have a juggling contest with Dennis and it took me a few seconds to dodge all of the bean bags.”

“You’re good. So what did you want to talk about?”

Yuzu pushed her bangs back with one hand. Her eyes lifted up to the starry sky overhead — there were no clouds, and the stars were surprisingly clear for the city. Sora waited, watching their breaths spiral into the air around them.

“It’s...been a few months since you’ve come to live in Standard...I mean, Pendulum, with us,” Yuzu said.

Sora looked down at his feet.

“Yeah, it has,” he said. “I’m really grateful to Yoko-san for letting me stay with her.”

“She loves having you. We all do.”

Sora felt a warm rising to his cheeks. He wasn’t totally sure how to react to nice things like that, even though Yuzu and the others had all been saying things like it for the last few months. It still made him feel weird. Being... _ wanted _ was a strange feeling.

“Sorry, I’m doing a bad job of leading up to this,” she said, and when he looked up, she was blushing. She blew on the fingers of one of her hands, the tips already getting a little pink. Her other was still tucked behind her back — was she hiding something?

“The truth is, Sora,” she said, dropping her eyes down to his, “Reiji-san recently found a bunch of locked files from Academia. Student files.”

Sora felt cold for a second — what did this have to do with anything? Did they find something bad? Was something going to go wrong?

“And um...well, I hope that it isn’t rude of me to do this, since you didn’t tell me yourself, and I feel like of like I was spying, but Reiji-san happened to tell me that...well...” Yuzu fumbled.

“What is it? Is something wrong??” Sora said.

“Oh!! Oh, no, nothing’s wrong at all!!” Yuzu said, waving her one free hand back and forth. “Oh, no, I made you anxious — I’m sorry, Sora. It’s just that...here!”

She took her hand out from behind her back, and Sora briefly tensed — before he saw that it was a small, wrapped box.

“I thought we already did the Christmas gift exchange,” Sora said, feeling his heartbeat slowing down.

“We did,” Yuzu said, smiling in that soft, gentle way of hers. “This isn’t for Christmas.”

Sora blinked. He looked up at her. Her whole face softened, and she reached for his hands, lifting them up to place the box in his hands.

“Happy birthday, Sora,” she said.

Sora’s mind clunked to a stop for a second. Then his fingers tightened on the box, crinkling the paper.

“I...I don’t actually know when my birthday is,” he blurted. “So, I — uh —”

“That’s what I was trying to explain,” Yuzu said, rubbing the back of her neck. “Reiji-san found your student file, Sora. Your birthday is December fifteenth...today.”

She clasped her hands in front of her, drumming her fingers against them.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Was that okay? I wasn’t sure...if it would be strange to have found out through that, or —”

Sora’s vision blurred. It took him a second to realize that he was crying, his tears dribbling on the small wrapped present. He quickly covered his eyes with the back of his arm, rubbing furiously.

“It’s fine!!” he said, voice cracking. “I’m okay!! I just...I...”

He had already thought he was going to cry during the gift exchange, but this...this was different, this was special, this was...he’d never gotten a birthday present before. He’d never even...

“I’m okay,” he said over and over again. “I’m okay! I’m happy, I’m actually happy, Yuzu, I’m okay, I just...”

Yuzu didn’t say anything else. She just wrapped her arms around him, tucking him against her in a warm hug while he shook and cried. 

“Merry Christmas,  _ shishou _ ,” she whispered. “And happy birthday, Sora.”

Sora clutched the present, and clutched Yuzu. And for a moment longer, he just let himself cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the present was a little musicbox btw lol


	16. Ruri / Grace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Fireplace
> 
> Ship: Harpyshipping (Ruri/Grace)
> 
> Summary: This party is turning out to be a drag. Luckily, on her way out, Grace notices a very cute freshman.

This party was so  _ boring _ . Grace curled her lip and rolled her eyes as a fraternity boy, surrounded by a bunch of other frat kids in varying degrees of drunkenness, stood on top of the keg and did shots to the others’ chants. 

She downed the last of her own sad, cheap beer and tossed the empty red cup into the nearest trash can. It was already overflowing, so hers bounced off and hit the floor, but she didn’t bother to pick it up. Leave it for the organizers to pick up their mess. 

Gloria had already left an hour ago — it had been a pain convincing her to come along in the first place. Glori hated parties; called them “frenzied orgies of hedonism.” She would rather be in her room studying or out at the gym working out to keep up her grades and body for her basketball scholarship. 

Grace had been really excited for this one too — her first Christmas party as a sorority girl, after she’d spent the whole of last year working to get into it in the first place. She’d thought it would be...well, fun. Entertaining, at the very least, to watch other people lose it as they got drunker and drunker. Unfortunately, it seemed once you laughed at one drunk person falling over and landing face first into a pie, you’d laughed at them all.

Instead, this party was nothing but gross, drunk boys trying to hit on her when they couldn’t even stand up, cheap alcohol, music so loud you couldn’t even hear what the tune was, and not a bit of entertainment aside from a bit of filed away gossip about who went into a private room with who. Disappointing. No one was even willing to play a drinking game with her — they all just wanted to do regular, boring shots.

Disappointed, Grace wove her way free of the tightly packed, smelly bodies, and popped out near the door on the other side. She slipped through it after a pair of drunken boys who ran out holding hands and giggling, disappearing across the common room floor towards the stairs to the upper floors. Well, maybe she’d go upstairs and just have some snacks before going to bed — the last thing she wanted was a hangover from cheap alcohol and a party that wasn’t fun enough to make it worth it.

At least, that was her intention, until over the muffled sounds of the bass behind her, she heard a light, pretty laugh, like birdsong.

Her gaze roved the room for some sign of the source. Her eyes fell on the fireplace in the center of the wall, crackling with the warmth and heat of the fake fire behind the grate. There were three plush armchairs surrounded the fire, but it seemed that only one was occupied. She could only see the back of the girl’s head and the outline of her hair that looked almost black with the firelight. What was she laughing at all by herself?

Grace’s curiosity got the better of her. The party had been a wash, but perhaps this would be a little more exciting.

She approached from the back, putting her hands on the back of the chair and leaning her head around the side, letting her hair slide down her shoulder to hang off the side of her head.

“What’s so funny, love?”

The girl squeaked with surprise, leaning quickly away towards the other arm of the chair when Grace appeared, clutching her phone to her chest. Oh, Grace thought. She was  _ gorgeous _ .

The girl was probably younger than Grace, perhaps a freshman — she had to be, or Grace would have noticed her long before this. Her long hair wasn’t black as she’d first assumed, but rather a lovely dark violet, her bangs swept cutely over her forehead, smooth, fair skin catching orange glints from the firelight. Her eyes were a lovely shade of pure magenta, like Grace’s favorite lipstick.

“Sorry,” she said with a sly smile, stepping around the chair and sweeping her hair back over her shoulders. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“O-oh, you’re fine,” the girl said, blushing slightly — or at least, Grace hoped it was a blush, and not just the color of the fire playing over her face. “I was just distracted.

She awkwardly tucked a strand of lighter lavender hair behind her ear. She had a sweet, open sort of face, the kind that made Grace want to be just a little mean just to see how she might react.

“Not joining the party?” Grace asked, nodding towards the other room.

The girl blushed again.

“I’m...I guess I’m not as good with the noise as I thought,” she said.

“Oh, I completely understand, darling,” Grace said. “It’s all a bit the same, once you get bored of it.”

The girl smiled tentatively, and it was such a sweet look that Grace had to bite back the desperate urge to tease her — they’d only just met. She needed to hold  _ some _ of it back.

“What’s your name?” she asked, lowering down onto her knees beside the chair and resting her elbows on the arm, her chin on her folded hands. “I haven’t seen you around before, love.”

“O-oh, my name is Kurosaki Ruri,” the girl said. “And you?”

“Grace Tyler,” Grace said with a quick smile. She was pleased to see that Ruri’s smile was becoming less tentative, and that she was leaning forward in her seat a bit more. “So what was so funny?”

Ruri laughed softly, and it was the same lovely sound that had drawn Grace over to her in the first place.

“Oh, it’s just my brother,” she said, pointing to her phone. “He’s been sending me memes all night.”

“Oh, excellent!” Grace said, clapping her hands together. “I do that to my own dear sister all the time. Though she doesn’t appreciate it half as much as you seem to.”

Ruri laughed again, this time stronger. She was getting clearly more comfortable, and that made Grace feel uncharacteristically...soft. Something about this girl made her want to relax more than she normally did. She was glad she’d come over.

“So what about you?” Ruri said, leaning forward. “Not staying at the party?”

Grace shrugged dramatically, flinging her hair back in the motion.

“It was  _ droll _ ,” she said. “There’s only so many frat boys you can watch down shots until they pass out. Or vomit. Or both.”

Ruri made a crinkled nose sort of face, but she was still laughing, covering her mouth with her hand to hide it.

“I’m glad I left, though,” Grace said, catching Ruri’s gaze and holding it. “Because I found a much more interesting way to spend my time.”

Ruri blinked. And then she smiled — and it wasn’t the sweet, innocent, naive smile that Grace had expected. Instead, it was a secretive sort of smile, a twinkle in her eye that made Grace shiver with a deepseated delight. Perhaps this cute little freshman had more to her than Grace had expected.

“Oh?” Ruri said, tapping a finger to her chin. “Did you now? And what would that be?”

_ Oh, she’s cute, _ Grace thought. She rose to her feet, leaning over the arm of the chair and sliding one hand slyly towards Ruri’s. Ruri didn’t move it away, letting Grace put hers on top of hers.

“How would you like to find a more...relaxed locale to get to know each other?” she said.

Ruri smiled, turning her hand up to take Grace’s hand back. Grace helped her out of the chair like a prince sweeping a princess to her feet, and Ruri giggled.

“I think that would be nice,” she said.

Her smile really was infectious, Grace thought with a spark of excitement in her chest. This might be an interesting night after all.


	17. Reiji / Yuya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Stocking
> 
> Ship: Pendulumshipping (Reiji/Yuya)
> 
> Summary: This is going to be Reira’s first Christmas, and Yuya is absolutely determined to make it amazing.

Reiji considered the box, turning it over in his hands, frowning at the instructions for the doll on the back — why did a doll need instructions? Why weren’t toys simple? He remembered toys being simple when he was a child. Well, not that he had ever been interested in many of them even then.

He decided against it, putting it back on the shelf and turning back around to the cart.

He blinked. What on  _ earth _ was all in the cart?

“Yuya,” he said, peering around the pile of stuff. “I turned around for two minutes. What is all of this?”

Yuya popped his head out from behind the cart, crouched on the ground near the bottom shelf with a Lego set in his hands.

“Christmas stuff,” he said.

Reiji looked into the cart again. There were Christmas lights, garlands, decorative holly sprigs and poinsettias, bags of candy, boxes of ornaments, a miniature plastic Christmas tree, and at least ten different toys. Reiji picked up one, frowning at the cartoonish dragon plush that would apparently dance when you poked its belly.

“I know it’s ‘Christmas stuff’,” he said. “But what for?”

“For Christmas, duh,” Yuya said. He stood up and tossed the Lego set into the cart.

“And who is that supposed to be for?”

“Duh, for Reira! We’ve gotta decorate and get her presents and stuff!”

Reiji took the Lego set out of the cart and put it back on the shelf.

“Reira is less than a year old. She can’t have things with small pieces.”

“These are the ones with the big bricks,” Yuya said, grabbing the box back again. “They’re good for learning motor control.”

“She’s not even one yet, Yuya.”

“Fiiine.”

Yuya pouted, putting the set back on the shelf. Reiji started pulling out the other toys, looking them over to see if any were similarly not suited for his sister.

“And what about the rest of this? This can’t be for Reira,” he said. “Reira doesn’t even know what Christmas is yet.”

“But that’s okay!” Yuya said. “It’s still fun!”

Reiji pulled out a stocking from the bottom of the car, raising his eyebrows at the Kuriboh design all over it.

“It’s cute!” Yuya insisted. “I’m going to have Yuzu make a heat transfer with Reira’s name on it for her!”

“Again, Yuya,” Reiji said, trying not to smile. “Reira doesn’t even know what Christmas is yet.”

Yuya snatched the stocking back, pouting at him.

“What, I’m not allowed to spoil her at all?” he said. “Come on, Reiji! I’ll bet you haven’t had a proper Christmas in a while, either!”

Reiji blinked at him for a moment, and then glanced into the cart, trying to piece together what Yuya considered a ‘proper Christmas.’ Yuya’s eyes bugged at him.

“Oh no,” he said. “You’ve never celebrated Christmas at  _ all _ , have you?”

“We did,” Reiji insisted. “Regardless of the fact that none of us — including you — are Christian, so I don’t know why you’re so concerned about it.”

“It’s Christmas! Christmas!” Yuya insisted, waving his arms, and the stocking, up and down. “Who cares about the origin! It’s a time to have fun, give people presents, eat a lot of good food, and make your friends happy!”

He put the stocking back into the cart, and grabbed the handles, sending Reiji a pouty look.

“If you don’t want to, okay,” he said. “But I’m still getting Reira at least some of this stuff. I think Reira more than anyone deserves to have a happy Christmas, even if she doesn’t know what it’s all for.”

Reiji couldn’t help it — Yuya’s face, his enthusiasm, the fact that they were here in the first place, talking about Christmas and buying things for Reira and not on the battlefield where Reiji had almost thought he would spend his entire life, unable to see anything after it, made him feel like he was melting inside. He sighed, reached out, and put his hand on top of Yuya’s, taking the cart alongside him so that they briefly pressed next to each other.

“All right,” he said. “I suppose I am curious about what your version of Christmas looks like. And I think Reira will enjoy it too.”

Yuya blinked. And then he grinned, pressing up against Reiji and leaning his head on his shoulder.

“Oh don’t worry,” he said. “A Sakaki Christmas is  _ always _ a great time.”


	18. Ruri & Shun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: cookies
> 
> Ship: Reclaimshipping (Ruri & Shun)
> 
> Summary: Shun and Ruri had a fight and now Ruri’s crying.

Ruri sobbed even louder, and Shun tried really hard not to scowl because mama was glaring at him. Geez. She wasn’t even that hurt. She was such a drama queen.

“Do you want to explain what happened?” mama asked, her arms folded, glaring down her nose at him.

Ruri sniffled and sobbed, her face buried into their other mom’s chest while she stroked through Ruri’s hair. Mama’s glower didn’t make Shun feel nearly as bad as how sad mom looked, her long dark hair falling out of her bun a little and dark circles under her eyes. Shun ducked his eyes away from both mom’s looks, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“I told her not to touch my cards,” he grumbled. “And she crinkled one. So I tried to take it back from her.”

“So you pushed her.”

“It was an accident! She didn’t even fall that far!”

“Shun.”

Shun hunched his shoulders around his ears, staring at the floor. Mama loomed over him for a moment, looking very cross. Then she sighed, closing her eyes.

“You need to apologize to your sister.”

“She crinkled my card!!”

“She didn’t mean to. You need to speak nicely with Ruri. She’s only four. You have to be the big brother.”

Shun tightened his hands into his pockets, scowling at the floor.

“You need to apologize for pushing your sister. Even if it’s an accident, we say sorry when we hurt someone. Ruri, you should say sorry to niisan, too, for crinkling his card.”

Ruri sniffled loudly. She peeked her face out from mom’s chest, her eyes red and her nose running. Shun hated how seeing her so upset made him feel  _ worse _ , even though it  _ wasn’t his fault!! _

Ruri sat up in mom’s lap, wiping away her tears and snot with the heels of her palms.

“I’m sorry, niisan,” she said, her eyes filling up with tears again. “I’m really sorry.”

Uuugh. Shun ducked his head down towards the floor, trying not to look at Ruri’s sad face.

“And what do you say, Shun?” mama asked.

“Sorry,” he grumbled.

For a minute, mama and mom exchanged a glance. Then mama sighed.

“Maybe you and Ruri should spend some time in your own rooms for a bit,” she said. “Just to cool off.”

“But I said sorry!!” Shun insisted.

“Upstairs, Shun. Just for a little bit. I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.”

Shun glared at both of them, and then stormed away upstairs to his room. He slammed the door as hard as he could, but his arms weren’t very strong, so that wasn’t very hard. Then he crawled up onto his bed, burrowed beneath the covers, and resolved to spend the next hour sulking. He said sorry! Why did he have to stay in his room now?? It was Ruri’s fault for not leaving his cards alone like he said!

He wasn’t sure how long he was sulking when he heard the door open with a soft creak. He laid very, very still, hoping that mom, if it was her, would think he was asleep and not bother him.

Instead, however, he heard a soft pat-pat-pat of feet. He felt the bed creak as someone with tiny hands struggled to pull herself up on top of it.

Shun flung the covers off of himself.

“Ruri!” he said. “You’re not supposed to be in —”

Ruri’s tear-swollen face and trembly lips didn’t make him pause, but what she was holding out in her little fist did. He blinked, looking at the awkwardly shaped, almost-square cookie, which was clearly falling apart due to how tightly she was holding it.

“Sorry, niisan,” she mumbled. “Ruri’s sorry that Ruri made your card wrinkly.”

Shun stared at the cookie.

“Where did you get this?” he asked, so surprised that he forgot to be mad at her.

“It’s Ruri’s secret cookie for emergencies,” she said, stumbling over the word “emergencies.” “But you can have it, niisan. ‘Cause it’s an emergency.”

Shun stared at the cookie for a moment longer, the crumbs already falling onto his bedspread. It was so out of place and he had no idea where she could have gotten a cookie like that since mama’s and mom’s cookies all looked  _ way _ better, but yet — he couldn’t help but choke on a small laugh.

He took half of the cookie, and before Ruri could let go of it, he broke half of it off.

“It’s okay,” he said. “Let’s share it. Thanks, Ruri.”

Ruri’s whole face lit up. She scrambled up onto the bed to sit next to him, sprinkling more crumbs over the comforter, and crawled over so that she was sitting next to Shun, pressed up right against him before she dug into her cookie.

He took a small bite of his. Oh, yeah, this was definitely burnt.

“Ruri, did you make this cookie?” he asked.

“Uh-huh.”

“When?”

“Ummm....”

Ruri counted on her fingers, her half of the cookie already stuffed inside her cheeks.

“Five,” she said, holding up six fingers.

“Five what?”

“Five...months?”

It definitely wasn’t a five month old cookie, so Shun just laughed, taking another burnt bite. He put an arm around Ruri, and Ruri immediately snuggled into his shoulder.

“Thanks, Ruri,” he said. “I’m sorry too.”


	19. Yuzu / Ruri / Rin / Selena

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Santa
> 
> Ship: Natureshipping (Yuzu/Ruri/Rin/Selena)
> 
> Summary: The aspects of nature are always very busy no matter what the season is. Yuzu, the aspect of flowers, however, wonders about human traditions.

“Do you think Santa Claus is real?”

It took Selena a few moments to realize that the question was not, in fact, a joke. She looked up from the moonlight for the next full moon that she’d been weaving for Rin to take out on her winter winds tomorrow night to find Yuzu hovering over her. A few bright yellow flowers — winter jasmines, Selena thought they were — fell out of her hair and dusted the moonlight. Selena dusted them away.

“You’re not serious, are you?” she asked.

Yuzu pouted at her, folding her arms. More winter jasmines bloomed in her hair, while a thick layer of hellebore and witch hazel covered her dress, sprigs of holly dangling from her headdress. Behind her, a layer of sweet alyssum flowers had grown in her footsteps, starting to creep along the floor and making a mess.

“Yuzu,” Selena said, setting aside her moonlight tapestry. “Really. You’re asking me if Santa Claus — a human fairy tale — is real.”

“Well, _we’re_ real, aren’t we?” Yuzu said. “And we don’t know _all_ of the spirits, you know. It’s not just us, as much as we like to pretend.”

“Humans don’t tell stories about us, though,” Selena pointed out. “If Santa Claus was real, he’d be better at making sure people don’t notice him. Like us.”

She eyed Yuzu then, raising an eyebrow at her.

“Why are you asking, anyway? What brought this up?”

“I was just out checking on the poinsettias that people have been growing for Christmas,” Yuzu said. “And I stopped to listen to a carol, and...I don’t know. I thought maybe there was a possibility.”

She frowned, then, and Selena always hated the way she looked when she was sad. She was also really bad at dealing with it, too, clutching and unclutching her hands, unsure if she should hug the aspect of flowers or not.

A light, chill breeze danced through the room, then, and Rin blustered in through the doors like a shot.

“Back!” she shouted breathlessly. “In record time!”

“You’re moving too fast!” Ruri’s voice called out, struggling in after the aspect of wind. She shook herself, feathers falling from her hair and cloak as she shivered and tightened it about her. “Rin, you’re bringing the winds too fast! The birds are having trouble flying home for the winter. It makes guiding them take too long.”

“Well, they should start migrating earlier! I have a big snowstorm to whip up in two days! I don’t have time to slow down the wind!”

A few of Yuzu’s flowers withered up with Rin’s gust of cold wind, and Yuzu huffed. Rin had the decency to look a bit chagrined, at least, and turned up the temperature a few degrees.

“How’s the moonlight for tomorrow coming?” Rin asked Selena.

Selena gestured to the tapestry.

“Getting there.”

“Great! I’ve still gotta finish welding the clouds for that snowstorm, so I’ll take it out with me once I’m done.”

“I still have some animals to send into hibernation,” Ruri sighed. “This really is such a busy time of the year.”

“It’s _always_ busy,” Selena said.

“Maybe we should take a break, then,” Yuzu piped up suddenly.

Everyone hesitated, glancing at each other before looking at Yuzu.

“We don’t really have time for breaks,” Rin said.

“It’s Christmas,” Yuzu insisted. “And Yule, and Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa, Omisoka, and a million other holidays! A snowstorm can wait, right? You’re so fast anyway! And Selena, you’re already pretty much done with the moonlight.”

“I still have stars to arrange for the rest of the week,” Selena said.

“Oh, come on! We never get a chance to take a break. Just for a few minutes.”

“Is this about Santa Claus somehow?” Selena said.

“Santa Claus? What does this have to do with Santa Claus?” Ruri asked.

“Yuzu was just asking me if I thought he was real.”

Rin burst out laughing, and Yuzu glared at her.

“It’s a legitimate question!” she said. “None of us thought the tooth fairy was real until last year either! There must be hundreds of other spirits out there who we haven’t met yet.”

“Yuzu, is something wrong?” Ruri asked gently. “You seem...stressed.”

Yuzu huffed, folding her arms. Red poinsettias blossomed across her dress.

“I’m just tired,” she said. “There’s not much for me to do in the winter, you know. And you’re all always busy. I just...I want a chance to spend time with all of you for once.”

Her flowers got smaller as she talked, hugging herself and dipping her eyes towards the floor.

Selena felt immediately awful. She hadn’t even thought about how bored and lonely Yuzu must be during the winter months. No wonder she was wandering about longer than she had to, listening to carols and thinking about human traditions and fairy tales about giving gifts and spending time with loved ones.

Ruri was the first to walk over to her and take Yuzu’s hands, clutching them lightly.

“You’re right,” she said. “Maybe we do deserve just a few hours. I think the animals can fend for themselves for a bit.”

“Yeah, I mean, I can throw together a snowstorm in a couple of minutes,” Rin said breezily. “Let’s do something for a bit, Yuzu.”

Yuzu’s flowers immediately blossomed into bright, brilliant colors, her whole face lighting up. She glanced at Selena then, biting her lip. Selena felt heat skitter over her cheeks. She stood, then, and walked over to join them by putting her hands in the center on top of theirs.

“I guess I do have stars arranged ahead of schedule,” she said. “One night will be all right.”

Yuzu’s beaming face was a gift in itself, and Selena couldn’t help but smile.

“What do you want to do, Yuzu?” Ruri asked.

Yuzu laughed, sweeping all three of them into a warm, flowery hug.

“I just want to be with all of you,” she said. “That’s the only gift I need.”


	20. Gloria & Grace & Yuuri

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Sled
> 
> Ship: Strychnoshipping (Gloria & Grace & Yuuri)
> 
> Summary: Yuuri DID NOT agree to ANY of this.

"I will literally die, first.”

“You aren’t going to die, Yuuri, it’s perfectly safe.”

“I didn’t say that I  _ would _ die  _ if  _ I did it. I’m saying that I would  _ rather _ die than do this.”

Grace pouted at him, and Yuuri glowered back at her.

It was too  _ cold _ . He felt like he was about to shake into pieces from how much he was trembling, even considering his several, puffy layers. All of which made him feel wholly incapable of movement and completely vulnerable to any form of attack.

Not that there  _ was _ anyone around to attack him, or that he wouldn’t see them coming from miles away, considering the wide expanse of snowy hillside before them.

“I only agreed to leave the house,” Yuuri said. “I did  _ not _ agree to...this.”

He nodded down at the offending piece of equipment — the very rickety old toboggan that looked like Grace had pulled it out of a dumpster on the way here.

“Gloriiiiii,” Grace whined, throwing herself dramatically onto her sister. “Yuuri won’t play.”

“I told you, he wouldn’t want to,” Gloria said with a snort and a roll of her eyes. “I don’t know what you want me to do about it.”

Yuuri stomped his feet a few times to try and knock warmth back into his toes, feeling wholly miserable. How had he let himself be convinced into coming out, anyway? Grace and Gloria had simply appeared at the door, asking for Yuya, and when he’d told them that Yuya was out, Grace had insisted that Yuuri come with them instead.  _ It will be fun! _ she’d insisted. Yuuri had only seen an opportunity to figure out these Tyler sisters that Yuya seemed so close with. They were Academia soldiers, formerly, of course, but very, very different than any of the ones he had known.

They weren’t at all scared of him, for one thing, even after they’d figured out who he was. That was frustrating, and just a little intriguing.

Gloria seemed a respectable soldier, if a bit easily swayed by her sister’s whims — Grace, on the other hand, was impossible to figure out. How was someone so... _ peppy _ and  _ enthusiastic _ formerly one of Academia’s greatest soldiers? It didn’t add up.

“Fine,” Grace said with a sniff. “Don’t play with me. I’ll just go by myself.”

She flung her hair over her back with a hmph, and made to climb onto the toboggan. It took her a few tries — clearly she had never gone sledding before, and wasn’t sure how to sit on it. Not that Yuuri ever had, either. She tried to scootch it forwards towards the hill while she was sitting on it, and Gloria sighed. She walked forward and gave her sister a push on her back.

Grace let out a little squeak — and then  _ whoosh _ .

She shot down the hill like a bullet, her shrieking delight echoing after her. Yuuri watched her with raised eyebrows. He glanced at Gloria.

“How do you deal with her?” he asked.

Gloria shot him a withering look, lip curling.

“She’s my  _ sister _ ,” she said, without elaborating.

Yuuri’s brow furrowed. He looked back down the hill to where Grace was reaching the bottom. She hit a small rise near the bottom and went soaring a foot into the air, before tumbling off the sled and falling into a snowbank. A moment later, she popped free of it, distant and snow-scattered, her laughter floating up through the still winter air.

Yuuri glanced at Gloria again — he was surprised to see a softness in her eyes, a small smile on her face. Grace jumped and down, waving up at them with both arms, and Gloria waved back with a bit more poise.

She noticed Yuuri looked at her again, and her smiled disappeared, eyebrow raising.

“What?” she said.

“I’m only curious,” he said. “It’s not usual to see anyone from Academia staying so close. Sisters or otherwise.”

Gloria’s eyes narrowed, catching onto Yuuri’s. Yuuri held her gaze easily, waiting to see if that was a sore point he could use later.

But nothing happened. Gloria only shrugged.

“We’re a team, no matter what,” she said. “And besides.”

She cocked an eyebrow at Yuuri and smirked.

“Academia’s dead. And we’re not. Which means we were the stronger ones.”

She leaned in towards Yuuri briefly.

“You must think so too, right?”

Ooh, interesting, Yuuri thought, feeling a smile break over his face. Her intensity was getting him all excited, like he was about to duel someone powerful and worth his time. Perhaps these twins were more interesting than he thought.

“That was incredible!” Grace squealed, breaking their stare as she clambered back up the hill, dragging the toboggan along. “Almost as fun as riding a D-Wheel! Yuuri, dear, you’re absolutely going to try this.”

“Oh? Am I?” Yuuri said.

All at once, Grace’s smile was less airhead and more snake, and Yuuri felt his heart rate soaring again.

“Yes you are,” she said. “Because I’m about to challenge you to a game — if you can get farther than I did, you’ll win.”

“Oh~?” Yuuri said with a slow grin. “What will I win?”

Grace’s smirk made him think that this would be a far more interesting sort of game with more interesting stakes than anything Yuya and the others would ever challenge him to.

“See if you can win, first,” she said sweetly, handing him the reins of the sled. “And then I’ll tell you.”

“I might demand something you don’t want to give when I win,” Yuuri said with a laugh, taking the sled from her. “But very well, dear, go ahead and put yourself on the line...”

The sled was...unwieldy, and he never would have boarded something so ridiculous unnecessarily. He couldn’t turn down a challenge, though.

“Good luck, Yuuri-chan,” Grace said, and Yuuri snorted. Luck was for losers.

He kicked himself off the side of the hill and —  _ whoosh _ .

It was so fast that for just a second, Yuuri’s mind felt like it had been left behind at the top. The snow skidded beneath him as though there were no friction at all, as though he might be flying. Wind cut through his coat as he soared downwards, his stomach dropping out, eyes widening — he hadn’t been prepared for just how — 

He hit the little lip that Grace had hit, the one that he’d forgotten about before he started down, and the top of the sled shot up — and he fell straight back. He landed in the snow on his back, while the sled flew off and skidded a few feet away. His head spun for a moment from the impact.

A soft crunch, crunch, crunch stirred him back to himself, and he sat up quickly, dusting the snow out of his hair.

“Oooh, you were so close,” Grace said, appearing at the bottom of the hill. “But that’s where I landed over there.”

She pointed to an imprint in the snow just a few feet ahead of him.

“Guess I win!” Grace said, with a sweet, sing-song voice that made Yuuri feel like ripping something up.

“Your sister pushed you farther,” he grumbled. “I would have won.”

“But you didn’t!” Grace said with a giggle. “And since I win, that means you have to stay and play with us for a little while longer — that means you’re riding on the sled with me this time.”

“What?? Absolutely not!”

Grace giggled at him, and Yuuri scowled — he had been a fool to think of this girl as being just an airhead.

“Why are you so insistent on my being here?” he said.

Grace smiled widely at him, leaning in close so quickly than he flinched in spite of himself. He jumped when she bopped his nose.

“Because, silly,” she said. “I think you’re fun.”

She bounced back onto her heels, and flounced off to retrieve the sled. Yuuri stared after her. 

He couldn’t put a word to the very strange feeling in his chest. He wasn’t sure how to find one, either.

But he stood up, and he did not complain as he hiked back up the hill with Grace. Well, he thought. They would be amusing for a little while longer.


	21. Masumi / Ruri

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Snowman
> 
> Ship: Sapphireshipping (Masumi/Ruri)
> 
> Summary: Masumi promised famous idol Ruri at her last failed audition that she’d absolutely meet her on stage one day — but now it’s time for Masumi’s debut, and Ruri’s the opening act, and she’s nowhere to be found.

The room was a  _ mess _ . Masumi edged to the corner, folding her arms and scowling at the bustle and rush of people running like chickens with their heads cut off before she got smacked into by someone running past with a pile of costumes.

“Has anyone seen her?” a man in sunglasses snapped, dodging around technicians rushing past with their equipment. “Where  _ is _ she??”

His gaze snapped to Masumi and she rolled her eyes before he could even say anything.

“Kotsu!” he yelled, stalking over to her. “Where is Yanadori??”

“If you mean Kurosaki, I don’t know,” Masumi said. “I’m not her keeper. You should keep better eye on your own talent.”

The man looked like he was getting ready to yell some more, but instead, he just went red in the face, swore, and stalked off. Masumi watched him go. She tightened her arms around her shoulders, scowling to herself. Geez. This music festival was supposed to start in an hour. Ruri was the opening act — she needed to be here for runthrough. What was she thinking?

Masumi scowled deeper. If she decided to disappear on her...when she’d put so much time and energy into preparing for this...

The door beside her opened, and she glanced up to see Hokuto coming through the door with his guitar slung over his shoulder. He didn’t see her until he closed the door behind him, and his eyes flicked to her. He shot her a grin.

“You ready for this?” he said. 

She scowled at him, but she accepted his high five when he put his hand out.

“It’s not going to happen if Kurosaki doesn’t get the hell out here,” she grumbled.

Hokuto’s grin took on a more conniving air, and he smirked, nudging her in the side with his elbow.

“Oh? Your girlfriend isn’t here yet? After you yelled at her at the last audition that you’d see her on stage next time?”

Masumi felt her cheeks go hot, and she shoved him back. He only laughed.

“Well, you’d better go find her, then,” he said. “It would suck if our debut got fucked up because the opening act couldn’t be here.”

“Why does everyone think I’m supposed to know where she is??” Masumi said.

Hokuto just shot her a backwards peace sign as he headed over to meet with the technicians, probably to check his guitar sound. Masumi tightened her folded arms, scowling. She gave in a few moments later, though, turning around and heading through the door Hokuto had arrived from.

The hallway towards the dressing rooms was just as busy, and Masumi had to hug the walls to make her way down to the end. Ruri’s dressing room was right at the end of the hall, her stage name, “Yanadori Miyoku” written on a plaque on the front. Masumi knocked, and then leaned back. She didn’t really think that Ruri was in here. Her manager definitely would have looked there first. But it was worth a shot.

“Hey!” Masumi shouted through the doors. “Kurosaki! You’d better not make me come in there!”

No answer. Masumi tried the handle — unlocked.

She pushed the door open and peered inside. It looked the exact same as all the other dressing rooms — a table in the middle, counters along the sides with mirrors on the wall, a rolling cart for hanging costumes on. Ruri’s outfit hung there, so clearly she wasn’t wearing it right now. Masumi glanced around the room for some other sign of where she might have gone — her irritation was starting to melt into nerves. What if something bad had happened? Ruri was a professional — she wouldn’t just leave right before a show, right? What if she’d been kidnapped or something?

No, no, that was stupid. She was playing hooky — even professionals did that sometimes. But not this time!! Masumi wasn’t going to let her, not when her own debut was on the line, and her promise — 

Her eyes fell to the floor, and she saw something dropped on the ground. A piece of paper? She leaned down to pick it up, turning it over. There wasn’t much on it. Just a doodle of...of a snowman? It was pretty bad. Had Ruri drawn this?

A thought occurred to Masumi. She took another look around the room. Ruri’s costume was here, her makeup bag, her shoes...but not her street clothes, or her coat or any of the winter gear she must have had to wear to get here with all the snow. 

Masumi shoved the snowman drawing into her pocket, and hurried towards the other end of the hall. She had to take a few turns, go into another hallway, and take two doors before she found her way outside, behind the ampitheater.

Cold air burst over her when she opened the door, and she immediately regretted her decision not to stop for her coat. She stuffed her hands beneath her armpits and squinted out into the darkness — there were some streetlights near the back road, but they didn’t perfectly illuminate this part of the theater campus. 

After her second pass with her gaze, though, her eyes caught on a shadow. Two shadows, actually. One was significantly smaller than the other, and for just a second, Masumi thought about that possibility of kidnapping she’d thought of before.

Neither of them were moving, though, and her nerves slowed. She took a nervous step into the snow — at least she wasn’t in her performance boots yet, she wouldn’t want them to get wet.

“Kurosaki?” she called.

The smaller shadow jumped. It scrambled, and then stood, and Masumi realized it had looked so small because Ruri had been sitting on the ground. And it was Ruri, Masumi saw as the girl whipped around, her hair swirling with her movement. For a moment, Ruri only stared with her mouth hanging open. Then her eyes widened, and she pulled her sleeve back to look at a watch on her wrist.

“Oh my gosh!” she gasped. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize it was so late already!!”

She started to run through the snow towards Masumi — the snow was about a foot high, though, and she yelped as she tripped over her own feet and went face first into the drifts. Masumi jumped over the snow and crunched through towards her.

“Hey!” she said. “Be careful! If you break your leg out here you can’t perform!”

Ruri blushed when she sat up, or maybe that was just the cold turning her cheeks red. Masumi’s eyes flickered, then, and she remembered the second shadow. She looked up to find a snowman with a pebbly smile looking at her. She blinked. She looked back down at Ruri.

“You were...making a snowman?” she said.

Ruri was definitely blushing this time. She struggled to stand up, and Masumi pulled her hands free so that she could grab Ruri’s arm.

“What are you thinking?” Masumi scolded, lips curling. “What kind of pop idol sneaks out by herself, at night, before a show, to make a snowman? What if you’d caught cold?? Or hurt yourself? Or some crazy fan had found you??”

Ruri ducked her head, hiding her eyes with her bangs. She looked so...small. It made Masumi’s words shrivel up in her throat. She wasn’t used to this. The last time she’d met Ruri, Ruri had been one of the judges in her idol audition. She’d seemed so far away and self assured then. And every time Masumi had seen her on stage, had met her behind it, she’d always seemed so...full of life.

“You’re right,” Ruri said, her voice strained. “It was very stupid of me. I’ll go inside right away and get ready.”

She tried to walk past Masumi again. Masumi grabbed her shoulder.

“Hey,” Masumi said. “Are...are you okay?”

Ruri hesitated. Her eyes flickered to Masumi’s, catching the light of the far away street lamps.

She smiled. Gently, she put her gloved hand on top of Masumi’s.

“Thank you,” she said. “I think I’m just a little...stressed.”

Masumi grabbed hold of her hand before Ruri could walk away again.

“Don’t you just end things like that,” Masumi snapped. “Maybe you think I’m just an upstart newbie, but I consider you my rival! I can’t be my best if my rival isn’t at hers!”

Ruri blinked. Her lips parted.

And then she giggled. Masumi dropped her hand with surprise, and Ruri covered her mouth with both hands. Her shoulders shook with how much she was laughing, trying to muffle it into her palms.

“Hey!” Masumi said, advancing. “Don’t laugh! I mean it!”

“I — I’m sorry!” Ruri laughed. “I’m not laughing at you, I promise!!”

She kept shaking just a little bit. Finally, she managed to get her breath back, wiping at her eyes with the backs of her hand.

“I just...no one’s talked to me like that in such a long time,” she said with a smile. “It’s kind of nice.”

Masumi gaped at her.

“You’re... _ happy  _ that I’m yelling at you?” she said.

Ruri nodded with a smile.

“Maybe you didn’t think so, Kotsu-san, but I liked you and your band,” she said. “It’s why I asked them to invite you to this festival with me when you finally got an agent.”

“But you rejected us at that audition,” Masumi said.

Ruri’s smile took on a heavy, tired look.

“I wasn’t allowed to accept you,” she said, rubbing at one eye. “I...they’d already chosen the winners before I got there. I had to do what my agency told me.”

Masumi gaped wider. And then she felt a little twist of vindication in her chest.

“I  _ knew _ it!” she yelled at the sky. “Those kids who won were  _ terrible _ !”

Ruri burst out laughing again, and this time, she didn’t cover her mouth with her hands. She doubled over, resting her hands on her knees.

“This is why...this is why I liked you,” Ruri gasped between giggles. “Because you say what you think, Kotsu-san!”

Kotsu felt her cheeks warm then, and she shoved her hands into her pockets, looking at nothing.

“Well, then this is what I’m thinking,” she said. “I’m thinking I want to know why you’re out here making a snowman before your performance.”

Ruri’s laughter faded away. She didn’t straighten, though, staring down at the snow.

“It turns out,” she said softly, “being an idol is a lot more doing what you’re told, rather than performing and making people happy.”

Masumi’s knot of tension in her chest faded away. Her arms slackened, cold, red-tipped fingers falling to her sides.

“So, the snowman...?”

“My brother and I used to make one at the first snow, every year,” Ruri said. “But I haven’t gotten to see much of him. Or do much of anything, really, since I debuted. I guess I just kind of...wanted a change of pace.”

She straightened then, her cheeks pink with the cold, and smiled sadly.

“Sorry I’ve bothered you,” she said. “You went looking for me, and I’m sure I’ve been holding everyone up.”

Masumi didn’t think about her impulse this time. She just reached for Ruri’s hand, and gripped it. Ruri’s lips parted, and for a moment, they just stared at each other.

“Kurosaki,” Masumi said. She wasn’t sure what she was going to say, but she knew she had to say something. “I’ll...I’ll see you on stage.”

Ruri blinked. She smiled. And before she could say anything else, Masumi squeezed her hand.

“And — and after the stage, I’ll build another snowman with you.”

That got Ruri’s eyes to widen. And her smile turned into something dazzling.

“I think I’d like that,” she said. “Thank you, Kotsu-san.”

She released Masumi’s hand, and turned towards the doors. Masumi watched her for just a second. Then she swore, and jogged to catch up with her.

“Masumi,” she said.

“Huh?” said Ruri.

“I said, it’s Masumi! Call me Masumi!”

Ruri hesitated. And then she giggled. She took Masumi’s hand, and Masumi felt even warmer than before, despite the cold.

“Then call me Ruri,” she said. “I’ll see you on stage, Masumi.”


	22. Ruri / Yuya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Jingle Bells
> 
> Ship: Wingshipping (Ruri/Yuya)
> 
> Summary: Ruri didn’t think someone would overhear her singing Christmas carols in the bathroom, but unfortunately or not for her, the star of the drama club just happened to hear her.

Ruri hummed as she washed her hands, swaying her hips back and forth to the beat of the song. The Christmas jingle had gotten in her head the other day when Shun had turned on the radio for just a second before driving them home, before scowling and switching it to another channel. It was still in her head, though, and, well, she was the only one in the bathroom, right? Most kids had gone home for break already. She was only here late because Shun had basketball practice, and she couldn’t get home without him.

She sang softly to herself while she dried her hands off.

_ “Silver bells, silver bells, it’s Christmas time in the city...” _

She was still singing to herself as she made her way out of the bathroom, pushing the door open to the hallway outside —

And the boy standing on the other side of it, his arms weighed down with several boxes and his eyes wide.

For just a second, the two of them stared at each other. Then he dropped the boxes with a loud thwump and grabbed her hands.

“Were you the one singing?” he asked excitedly. “You sound incredible! You’ve got to stop by the drama club — we need someone for our musical part!”

Ruri just gaped at him, too surprised to even take her hands away from him. She’d never seen him before, but he looked to about her age. He was just a slight bit shorter than her, with shaggy green and red hair tousled by his goggles. And he had one of the brightest smiles she’d ever seen in her life.

“I...I’m sorry,” she said, quickly extracting her hands from his. “You startled me.”

“Oh, sorry!” he said, jumping back. “I just heard you singing, and I had to stop and listen. You’re really good! Are you taking lessons?”

She blushed, covering her face with one hand.

“I...no, I’ve never had any lessons.”

“That’s incredible!!” he said, eyes bright. “You sound like a professional! Are you in any clubs?”

“N-no,” she said shyly. “My...my brother has to take me home, and most clubs don’t meet on the days that he has his.”

“Oh, we can totally work with your schedule, though! Please, at least come and stop by, will you? You’d really be a great addition!”

Ruri blushed even harder. No one had ever said something so nice about her voice before — she’d always been too shy to try! She nervously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I think I’m just a little overwhelmed. Thank you, for your compliment.”

He smiled, but a little gentler this time, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Sorry,” he said. “Yuzu’s always telling me I come off a little strong sometimes. I’m Sakaki Yuya! What’s your name?”

He extended his hand to her, and she smiled — he had such a nice smile, one that seemed to light up not just his entire face, but his entire body. She reached out and took his hand back.

“I’m Kurosaki Ruri,” she said. “And...you know what, if it’s not too much trouble, maybe I will come with you. Just for a little while, at least.”

“Yes!!” Yuya said, punching the air with his other hand. “You won’t regret it, Kurosaki-san! I promise!”

Ruri giggled and nodded. And for just a beat too long, she held onto his hand before letting go. Well, perhaps she’d see where this took her. 

He had a really nice smile, after all.


	23. Dennis / Yuuri

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Carols
> 
> Ship: Duskshipping (Dennis/Yuuri)
> 
> Summary: Yuuri is still getting used to a life without Academia.

Yuuri awoke slowly. For just a second, his chest seized up — why was it so dark? Where was he? Where was he supposed to be? Was someone else in the room with him? What was holding him down?

Then his body realized the soft plushness of the mattress beneath him, and the weight against his chest was nothing more than a comforter pulled up to his chin. He...was warm. He wasn’t sure when the last time he had been so warm was. Certainly not beneath the thin, scratchy blankets of Academia’s standard issue.

Academia. That was right — where was he? He needed to be up. He would have orders, surely, he needed to...

Was that a voice coming from the next room?

For just a moment, Yuuri’s brain went utterly quiet. The darkness seemed to close in around him, and despite the warmth, his brain conjured up images of places that he no longer was in, places that he hated to admit still tangled up in his soul so that he could never forget them — someone was in the next room, and he never got to sleep in places like this, that must mean that there was something happening...

His brain finally caught up with the actual sound, what had felt like hours in his mind taking probably only seconds. Oh. That sound wasn’t...it wasn’t an Academia officer, or a scientist, or even prey.

No, that was...that was Dennis’s voice.

Yuuri laid there, staring at the ceiling in the bed he was slowly remembering was his own. His own bed. He had his own bed. This warmth was no illusion or temporary appeasement. An the voice in the next room...

Dennis was singing. He had a low, honeyed sort of voice. Had Yuuri ever heard him singing before? He laid silent, listening. The words danced just out of reach due to the distance, but he couldn’t mistake the tune. Dennis sang one of those ridiculous Christmas songs that had been on the radio all week. That’s right — all week. Yuuri hadn’t been in Academia for some time. For...many months, in fact. He was just remembering now. He was finally waking up.

He sat up in bed, remaining in the dark. Dennis’s voice curled around him like a soft, warm blanket. No, he’d...he’d never heard Dennis sing before. Not even since Academia had fallen. Dennis had never sang in front of him. He...it sounded beautiful. Yuuri had never heard something so soft and gentle. His voice suited the otherwise annoying songs that Yuuri would demand Dennis shut off.

The voice curled through the dark room, and Yuuri leaned forward to rest his chin on his hands. He didn’t need to get up. He...didn’t want to get up. He just wanted to listen. Dennis had never shown this part of him before. It felt...precious. Something feeling precious was a new and strange feeling.

Finally, Yuuri slid out of bed. He padded across the floor in his bare feet and cracked the door open. The smell of breakfast wafted through the crack, and as Yuuri peered through, he saw Dennis’s back. Saw him swaying softly from foot to foot as he moved about the kitchen, alternating between singing and humming.

He didn’t notice Yuuri until Yuuri had slipped out of the bedroom, made his way over, and slid his arms around his waist. He jumped a bit in Yuuri’s arms, but Yuuri only tightened his grip.

“Oh, it’s you,” Dennis said, patting Yuuri’s hands. “Did I wake you?”

“No,” Yuuri said. “Don’t stop.”

“Hm?”

“Don’t stop singing.”

Dennis looked over his shoulder at Yuuri. Yuuri only buried his face into Dennis’s back, breathed in the scent and warmth of him, tightened his grip around what was his. He didn’t see it, but he almost imagined Dennis smiled.

Softly, he started singing again.

Yuuri had no one to answer to. Nowhere to be. He clenched his grip around Dennis and breathed in the sounds of his voice.

_ Ah,  _ he thought, feeling strange.  _ This is what home feels like. _


	24. Reiji / Yuzu / Yuya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Icicle
> 
> Ship: Orchestrashipping (Reiji/Yuzu/Yuya)
> 
> Summary: Turns out the Akaba year end business party is boring. Good thing Reiji invited the least boring people he knows.

“Yes, but if you don’t take into account the fluctuations...”

“Ah, you’re right of course, but then there’s the new policy on imports —”

The other man started to go into detail about his irritation regarding a series of new regulations, and Reiji decided not to try and finish his own thought, as no one was listening. Instead, he smiled, and sipped at his drink instead, pretending to listen just like everyone else in the group was. No one in this little copse of businessmen in their starched suits were actually paying attention — Reiji could see that look in their eyes, just waiting for a break in the conversation to inject their own thoughts about that policy or that market surge or that stock change.

He took another sip of his drink and briefly wished it was alcoholic, because it had only been two hours into this party and he hadn’t heard a single word that didn’t involve market fluctuations or numbers or whatever new fancy toy that these rich investors had purchased that Reiji had to pretend to care about. He glanced behind him towards the other end of the ballroom, decked out in golds and whites and fancy chandeliers, to see his father on the other end of the room. He looked uncomfortable in his suit; a lab coat had always suited him before. Mother stood next to him with one arm wrapped pointedly around his, fake laughing at something that someone else had said with a practiced poise. She was the only one who was really comfortable in this environment, after all. Even Ray had disappeared already, probably to make out with her boyfriend in a bathroom or something. 

Unfortunately, that meant it was up to Reiji to stay where he was and make nice with all of the LDS investors that needed to be constantly pacified. So he smiled blandly, nodded where it seemed appropriate, and tried not to count down the minutes until he was allowed to leave.

A hand poked his shoulder, snapping him to alertness. Who was that?

Before he could even look, a second hand grabbed his other elbow, wrapping an arm around it. His “conversation partner” stopped talking for a moment, clearly just as surprised as Reiji was by their new guests.

“Hi!” came the chipper voice as someone slung an arm around his shoulders. “Sorry we’re late, Reiji! Are we interrupting?”

It took everything Reiji had not to let his shoulders visibly slump.

“Ah,” he said, turning over both shoulders one at a time to confirm who he already knew it was. “Yuzu and Yuya. You are a bit late, aren’t you?”

“We got lost,” Yuzu said, smiling at him as she tightened her arms around his. “Sorry, gentlemen, but do you mind if we borrow him? We’re new guests and we need to be shown around.”

“Oh, well, uh...I suppose that’s all right,” the other man said, sounding flustered.

“Great!” said Yuya, nearly making Reiji lose his drink by tugging on his shoulders. “So where do you rich people keep the food?”

Reiji rolled his eyes, but he let himself be turned around by the pair of them, guiding their little trio over to the main food table. Yuya immediately snatched a plate and started to fill it up with way more than anyone else at this party had, causing Reiji to chuckle.

“Well?” Yuzu said, smiling at him. “You feel better?”

“I presume you interrupted me because you believed I needed rescuing,” he said.

“You totally did,” said Yuya. “What  _ are _ these? They look suspicious.”

“They’re just cheese balls, Yuya.”

“What?? Why are they covered in...whatever this is??”

Reiji chuckled, feeling a weight come off his chest. Yuya squinted at the appetizer in question with a goofy face that Reiji was certain Yuya was exaggerating for his sake. He looked good, actually. Yuzu must have convinced him not to wear his Christmas print suit, which was slightly disappointing — but he filled out the nice, dark red suit well. Yuzu looked resplendent as ever as well in a lovely pale violet cocktail dress. They added a much needed splash of color to the otherwise rather drab party.

“Okay, so,” Yuya said, talking around a mouthful of the cheese balls. “Tell me what happens at parties like this.”

“Talking, mostly,” Reiji said. “About very boring things.”

“Ah, so you fit in,” Yuzu teased him with a soft elbow. Reiji chuckled.

Yuya swallowed and wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand.

“Ugh, that’s way too boring, though,” he said. “Wait til you come to my holiday party next week. We’ll show you how it’s done.”

“I look forward to it.”

Yuzu tugged on Reiji’s arm then, her free hand balancing a small plate of her own food selections.

“Okay, I know it’s too cold to go out, but you’ve got to at least point out which direction the garden is. I want to see.”

“It’s just out this window,” Reiji said, pointing to the large window just behind the table. “You can see the hedge maze from here.”

Yuzu’s eyes lit up, and she scurried around the table to press her face to the glass. Reiji and Yuya joined her, Yuya still popping more mini appetizers in his mouth.

“Do you guys even do like, dancing here?” Yuya said.

“Well, there is music, and a dance floor,” Reiji said, pointing out the string orchestra that had been hired for the night, currently playing a slow rendition of a Christmas song. “Though people rarely do any actual dancing.”

“Well, we should totally fix that. Next song they play, let’s dance!”

“Oh? Are you going to organize a Broadway flash mob?”

Yuya laughed and lightly punched Reiji on the shoulder.

“Hey, we can do refined dances, too! Yuzu and I learned ballroom dancing for one of our shows.”

Yuzu stood on her tiptoes at the window when they approached, her hands cupped around either side of her face to try and look through the glass.

“Ugh, there’s too much frost,” she said. “And those big icicles are getting in the way.”

She pointed out the long, heavy spikes of ice that cascaded down the window frame on the outside. A small puff of condensation faded from the window pane where Yuzu’s breath had been a moment before.

“It looks pretty, though,” Yuya said. “A real white Christmas.”

“I guess so,” Yuzu said. “Reiji, invited us back here when you have a spring or summer party, so we can see the garden!”

“You can come visit at any time, you know,” Reiji said. “You both...add cheer to this place more than anything else does.”

Yuzu and Yuya exchanged a glance. Then they smiled at him. Yuya grabbed one of his hands, and Yuzu grabbed the other. He felt a heat rush to his cheeks when, in synch, they both kissed the back of one of his hands. Still holding his hands, they pressed in on either side of him, looking out at the cold white world outside.

“Well,” Yuya said. “It cheers me up to see you, too.”

“Call us any time you need to get away from all of this,” Yuzu said, bumping him with her hip.

Reiji smiled, tightening his hands around theirs.

“I certainly will,” he said softly.


	25. Reiji & Reira

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Christmas Movies
> 
> Ship: Trophyshipping (Reiji & Reira)
> 
> Summary: Reira wants to watch a movie with Reiji.

Something tapped against Reiji’s leg. He blinked, looking away from his computer. He had to blink twice to adjust his vision to the dark office — when had it gotten dark? But once his eyes adjusted, he saw that the tapping had come from Reira. The tiny girl barely reached the top of his knees even while he was sitting down, and she held something up towards him. Whatever she had tapped him with, he thought.

He took it, frowning as he turned it over.

“Frosty the Snowman?” he said, looking over it down at her. “Did you want to watch this?”

Reira’s eyes lit up, and she nodded wildly, her hair flopping around. He couldn’t help but smile. He reached down to pat her on the head.

“All right. I should take a break from working anyway. I’ll be out in a minute.”

He handed the movie back to her, and she bolted immediately, as fast as her tiny legs would let her. He watched her go for a moment, resting his arm on his desk. It seemed...strange, still, somehow. This little three year old girl, both the same and different from the Reira he had known before, living with him as normally as though they had always been together. He had never...had a younger sibling. Not until mother had brought home Reira one day, determined to make them into a dueling weapon and to hide their true nature by having them masquerade as Reiji’s adopted younger brother.

And now...now Reira really was his sibling, as far as he was concerned. Had it already been three years?

He stopped reminiscing, standing up from his desk and closing his computer. Goodness...it really had gotten late, hadn’t it? He had lost track of the time. He made his way out of his office and down the hall towards the living room.

Reira sat on the very edge of the couch, swinging her legs back and forth as fast as she could. Her whole face lit up when she saw Reiji walk in, and she leaped off the couch to slam into his knees. He gasped, nearly falling over from the impact.

“Are you excited to watch this?” he said.

Reira nodded very fast against his knees. She was so quiet, he thought with a small smile. That was something that she and the original Reira had in common.

“All right, all right,” he said, patting her on the head again. “I’m going to put it in. Do you want a snack?”

“Mmhm.”

“All right. You sit down and I’ll get it started.”

She released his legs and scrambled back to the couch, clambering onto it while Reiji got the television on and started the movie. While the previews for other similarly cheesy cartoons played, he slipped into the kitchen. By the time he returned with a small bowl with some dry cereal, Reira was already perched on the very end of the couch, eyes huge and enraptured by the cartoon opening for the movie. 

She didn’t take her eyes away from the screen while Reiji sat down next to her, but she did scootch over and fall against his shoulder, eyes still glued to the cartoon. Reiji held the little bowl between their legs, and without looking away, Reira fumbled to grab a handful of the little honey-flavored cereal bits, shoving them into her mouth and losing a handful to the couch beside her. Reiji bit back a soft chuckle.

Once the cereal was gone, the snowman had come to life in the cartoon, and Reira was bouncing up and down to the rhythm of the song they were singing. Reiji set the bowl aside and put a light arm around Reira. Reira immediately fell against, snuggling back into his scarf and sighing.

“Niisan?” she said.

“Hm?”

“Why do snowmans wear hats?”

“Hm. I think it’s because they like the way it looks.”

“Like niisan’s scarf?”

He smiled.

“Like my scarf, yes.”

Reira tugged on the long part of Reiji’s scarf and fumbled it around her shoulders. He drew her a bit closer and wrapped it up against her more neatly.

The movie was nearing the end when her head started to droop. She snapped back up, opening her eyes as wide as she could, and he swallowed another chuckle. Despite her best efforts, though, her head kept nodding forward and her eyelids drooped. A few more moments, and she was sagging against his shoulder, tiny snores drifting out of her. He held her up gently against him, loathe to move in case he woke her.

The credits started to roll past, and Reira was still fast asleep. He checked his watch. It was about her bedtime anyway.

She stirred a bit when he hefted her gently up into his arms. She was getting almost too big for him to carry even now. Her tiny fingers curled into his scarf as she sighed deeply.

“Love you, niisan,” she mumbled, her body then slackening back into sleep.

He felt himself soften, and for a moment, he just stood there, cradling her. He brushed some of her hair back against her back. She was so tiny. She wasn’t exactly the Reira he had once known...

But she was still Reira. And she had a second chance to live the childhood she’d always deserved.

“I love you too, Reira,” he said softly.


End file.
